


The Unstoppable Spider-Woman

by MamaDonovan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Canon Compliant, Coming of Age, Dating violence, F/F, Fem Peter Parker - Freeform, Fem Spider-Man, Genderbending, Past Child Abuse, Petra Parker - Freeform, Will Address the Skip Westcott backstory in a later chapter, fem!Peter Parker - Freeform, fem!Spider-Man - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-03-22 08:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 30
Words: 60,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13759974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaDonovan/pseuds/MamaDonovan
Summary: The coming of age of Spider-Man, who is secretly the teenage Petra Parker. From the creator of "The Star-Spangled Gal" comes the latest experiment in swapped gender expectations and experiences for the iconic teenage superhero. She carries the same demons and baggage as Peter, but also contains the same power within her. How will she handle the strife thrown her than if she were a boy? How do the adults around her treat her differently? How does a tiny shy girl make a name for herself?





	1. Meet Your Idols

Petra squealed in her cheeks when she saw the discarded DVD player in the dumpster behind the barbershop. Luckily for her, most people on this block discarded and replaced their perfectly fixable electronics as soon as they stopped working. She snatched it up like treasure. With a screwdriver, extra parts, and a little elbow grease, she could repair it within the hour and be able to watch her movies.

She used to watch them on her PS3, but she sold that when she and her Aunt May moved into their apartment. While Aunt May insisted that Petra didn’t have to make it her responsibility to pay any bills, Petra knew that Aunt May shouldn’t have to do this alone. She already felt guilty for Uncle Ben’s death as it is; she didn’t want to make her aunt suffer too. May, however, didn’t want to force Petra to grow up too quickly. Food and shelter were May’s job and she would be damned before she made it her niece’s too. So Petra used the extra cash to buy the things that she needed personally, like clothes and school supplies. Besides, she could always go to Ned’s house to use his PS4.

The new apartment was a major downsize from the house obviously, but Petra took to it really quickly. If the old house could go from a strange new place to what she called home, then surely she could do the same for this apartment. As long as she had her Aunt May there, it was home.

As soon as she got through the front door, she set down her loot and her backpack and headed straight for the kitchen, as per her daily routine.

“Hey May.” She greeted without taking her eyes off her path.

“Hey, how was school today?” Aunt May asked cheerily.

“Okay.” Petra said as she pulled out her earbud, “There’s this crazy car parked outside…”

Petra had to do a double take when she saw the man sitting on the couch to make sure she wasn’t mistaking him for someone else. It could be an impersonator, or just another distinctly bearded visitor. She didn’t confirm it was really THE Tony Stark until he spoke.

“Oh, Miss Parker.” The man sounded just like he did in his press conferences.

“Hu...wha...haha…What are you doing he-” Petra didn’t know what to do with her hands so shuffled them behind her back as she stammered, “H-Hi, I’m Petra…”

“Tony.” He said in a friendly way. Petra wondered whether she died or was hallucinating because the most famous man she could ever imagine just met her three seconds ago and they were already on a first name basis. Or maybe she was assuming too much, and he was just being extra nice because she was such a loser and he could see it on her face.

“What are you...what are you...you doing here?” Petra tried to keep her cool and not scream.

  
“It’s about time we met.” Mr. Stark said while Aunt May mouthed her disbelief.

“You’ve been getting my emails right?” He continued and winked at her, but the eye he tried to wink with was bruised like hell and did more of a wince, so he switched to the normal eye. She was still confused, but now she knew whatever he had to discuss, it must have been a secret, and may have had to do with why he had a shiner, and she was secretly afraid that this had to do with her new powers.

“Yeah, yeah...” Petra played along, “...regarding the-” She left it open for Tony to fill in.

“You didn’t tell me about the grant!” Aunt May said.

“About the grant.” Petra followed.

“The September Foundation.” Mr. Stark explained, “Remember when you applied?”

“Yeah…” Petra went with the lie, even though she thought that grant was only for college students.

“I approved, so now we’re in business.” He said as took a sip from the cup of the special tea set. He stared at her long and hard so Petra got the real message, since winking was apparently off the table for him now.

“But you didn’t tell me anything. What’s up with that? You’re keeping secrets from me now?” Aunt May asked.

“W-Well I…” Petra bit her finger and she tried to come up with an immediate lie, “...I only applied because the career counselor told me to. I didn’t think I actually stood a chance. I don’t even remember which part I applied for. I think it was…?”

“That’s what I’m here to hash out.” Mr. Stark took over.

“Okay, h-hash it out, okay.” Petra kept eating her fingers.

“It’s so hard for me to believe that she’s someone’s aunt.” He derailed for a bit.

“Well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know.” Aunt May said with a laugh.

“This walnut date loaf is exceptional.” He complimented her.

“Let me just stop you there.” Petra got back on track once the shock wore off, “Is this grant, got, like, money involved, or whatever? No?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty well-funded. Look who you’re talking to.” Mr. Stark answered and then turned to Aunt May, “Can I have five minutes with her?”

Aunt May looked to Petra first to see if her niece was okay with that, and Petra nodded furiously, so she gave them the okay.

Petra ran to her room first and tried to clean as much clutter off of her desk and her bed before Mr. Stark walked in. When he entered the room, she heard the click of the lock from behind her as she shoved her laundry hamper under her bed.

“Hey.” She jolted up and asserted, “Don’t lock that. That’s the rule.”

He nodded and unlocked it. Then, he walked over to the trash can and spit out the rock hard tea treat he almost broke his tooth on.

“As walnut date loafs go, that wasn’t bad.” Mr. Stark said as he looked around her room and say the bulk of electronics on her desk, “Ohh, what do we have here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?”

“Uh, the garbage actually.” Petra said nervously, taking in the reality that her idol was in her room.

“You’re a dumpster diver.”

“Yeah, I was...Look, um...I definitely did not apply for your grant and-”

“Nuh-ah, me first. Quick question of the rhetorical variety...” Mr. Stark said as pulled out his phone and projected a hologram of the viral Youtube video that caught her swinging by on a web and stopping a car-jacker, “That’s you, right?”

“Um, no. Wha-What are you…” Petra tried to interrupt him but couldn’t get a word in.

He moved onto another one where she stopped a car from crashing into a bus. “Look at you go. Wow, nice catch. 3000 pounds at 40 miles an hour? That’s not easy. You got mad skills.”

“That’s all on Youtube right? I mean, that’s where you found that? Because you know that’s all fake, it’s all done on the computer?” Petra tried to explain as Tony Stark circled around her room and looked at the ceiling, “And besides, everyone’s been calling him Spider-Man, and I don’t know if you noticed but I’m a girl, so you should be looking for a boy. Not that it’s real! It’s so fake, like that video-”

“Yeah, yeah, oh you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?” He continued as he grabbed a pushbroom and pushed open the loose panel in front of the closet. A set of blue and red spider-decorated sweats fell from the panel, and Petra panicked and jumped to catch them and futilely keep them out of sight.

“What have we here?” Mr. Stark snickered.

“D-Don’t you know better than to go poking around a girl’s room?” Petra exclaimed defensively as she blushed and held her costume behind her.

“So…” Mr. Stark stood in front of her, “You’re the Spider...ling. Crime-fighting Spider. Spider-Girl?”

Petra sighed and mumbled timidly, “S-Spider-Man.”

She didn’t change the gender on purpose. Her lack of curves in the hoodie and the ski mask hiding her short hair gave no clue that she was a girl, and once the first video posted called her Spider-Man, the media that followed was out of her control. Besides, at least it kept people off her trail, or so she thought.

“Not in that onesie, you’re not.” Mr. Stark said.

“It’s not a onesie.” She crossed her arms and walked away from it in defeat. She knew that Mr. Stark would be disappointed when he saw how unimpressive the girl behind Spider-Man really was, “I can’t believe I was actually having a really good day today you know, Mr. Stark? Didn’t miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there, and, algebra test, nailed it.”

“Who else knows?” He asked as he held her rolled up suit, “Anybody?”

She shook her head, “Nobody.”

“Not even your unusually attractive aunt?”

“No!” Petra insisted, “No, no, nonono, if she knew, she would freak out, and when she freaks out, I freak out-”

“You know what I think is really cool? This webbing.” The genuine interest in his voice perked her ears up, and she caught the vial when he tossed it to her, “That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?”

Petra blushed and smiled a little as she told him, “I did.”

“Climbing walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?” He asked.

“It’s a...long story.” Petra leaned over her desk, “I was…”

  
“Lordy, can you even see in these?” He pulled the goggles out of their holes in the mask and looked through them, messing around like a child.

“Yes, I can.” Petra truly adored Iron Man but she still didn’t like him poking around her things, so she pulled it away from him and put in the closet, “I can see in those, okay? It’s just...when whatever happened _happened_ , it’s like my senses have been dialed to 11. There’s...there’s way too much input, so they just kind of help me focus.”

“You’re in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred-point restoration.” Mr. Stark gestured to all of her, “That’s why I’m here.”

Petra sat down on her bed, listening intently.

“Why are you doing this?” He asked. She was stunned and didn’t know what to say.

“I gotta know, what’s your MO? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?” He clarified.

She nervous pinched at her fingers and lowered her head. The real answer to that was too complicated, too personal, and too long. She opened her mouth to try and summarize what happened to her parents, her innocence, and her Uncle Ben, but all that came out was gurgled gibberish, so she shut her lips tight. She took a deep breath in, and started over.

“Because I’ve been me my whole life, and I’ve had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers.” She opened up more, “And yeah, I would love to be on the drill team, but I couldn’t then, so I shouldn’t now.”

“Sure, because you’re different.” Mr. Stark followed.

“Exactly, but I can’t tell anybody that, so I’m not.” Petra continued, and moved her mouth painfully as she remembered how reckless she was with her powers when she first got them.

She was so excited to finally be able to fight for herself. She stayed out late just because she could. She told her aunt and uncle she was studying at Ned’s house when she was really sneaking out to crash Flash Thompson’s party in red lipstick and a hot midriff. She danced with every guy who came up to her, because what was the worst they could do to her now? She chugged beer in front of the football team just to see the look on their faces. For that night, she felt like the queen of the school.

And then Uncle Ben showed up because Ned squealed when he stopped by to drop off the textbook Petra forgot for their “study session.” He ordered her to get in the car in front of everyone. And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, he called all the parents that he could and told them about all the underage drinking. So Petra went from being invisible, to the life of the party, to the loser who got everyone in trouble, all in one night. She was so humiliated, she told Uncle Ben she hated him. He tried to tell her that she was more responsible than this and that she didn’t need to change who she was to get attention. She didn’t want to listen. She jumped out of the car at the next red light, and ran faster than he could keep up. She decided that her night wasn’t over and snuck into a seedy club through the back window. She danced and she drank like she was invincible.

She finally decided she had enough at 2 in the morning and snuck out the back. However, some stubbly creep followed her out to the alleyway. She thought he was going to try to get her to go home with him, so she ignored him. Then she felt the gun pressed to her back. She froze. He asked her for money. She went silent. She could have flipped out of the way, knocked the gun out of his hand and thrown him into the brick wall, but she didn’t. She just froze.

Then, the bouncer came from the back of the club and yelled at the mugger, scaring him off. He came up to a shivering Petra and asked her if she was alright. She was still silent. The bouncer reprimanded her for being out here so late when she was so young, but offered to call her a cab. She just walked away.

She finally realized how stupid she was and tried to call Uncle Ben. It rang and went to voicemail as she walked down the block. She tried again. No answer. She walked to the edge of the club district, calling and calling, but he still didn’t pick up. Then, as she turned the corner, she saw the police cars, the ambulance, the caution tape, and the blue and red lights. She walked closer to see the paramedics lifting someone onto the gurney. She recognized the jacket. She saw the peppered hair. She ran over just as they were loading Uncle Ben into the ambulance. She screamed and cried out that that was her uncle and was allowed to ride with him. They told her he had been shot by a mugger who usually showed up around that hour.

At the hospital, Petra met up with Aunt May, who was too distraught and terrified to be angry at her. Petra bawled and told Aunt May that Uncle Ben was only out there because he was looking for her. Aunt May just held her and told her everything was going to be okay and she was glad that she was safe.

And then, Uncle Ben died. And then the cops arrived and showed Petra a picture of the mugger, and she recognized him as the one who cornered her in the alley. And she knew that had she done something, anything at all instead of freezing, Uncle Ben would still be alive.

“When you can do the things that I can…” Petra returned back to her current place and time with Mr. Stark, “...but you don’t...and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.”

Tony leaned forward, realizing the girl in front of him had been through some horrible things in her life, which forced her to mature beyond her years. He also realized that she was just what he was looking for.

“So you want to look out for the little guy, you want to do your part, make the world a better place, all that, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, yeah...just looking out for the little guy.” Petra bit her lip, “That’s what it is.”

Tony Stark got up from his seat and moved towards the bed where she was sitting, “I’m going to sit here, so you move the leg.”

She drew her leg back into criss-cross and let him sit next to her. He hesitantly patted her shoulder.

“You got a passport?” He asked.

“No, I don’t even have a driver’s license.” She quietly laughed.

“You ever been to Germany?”

“No.” She replied at how ridiculous the idea was. Did she look like she could afford to travel?

“Oh, you’ll love it.” Mr. Stark insisted.

“I can’t go to Germany!”

“Why?”

“I got homework!”

Mr. Stark rolled his eyes like he had genuinely forgotten the structure of high school life, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

“I’m being serious, I can’t just drop out of school!” Petra protested.

“Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie that I’m taking you on a field trip-”

Petra shot her webs out of her shooter she was hiding under her jacket sleeve. The white net trapped Mr. Stark’s hand to the door knob.

“Don’t tell Aunt May.” Petra asserted.

Tony Stark, the Iron Man, looked at her, noticeably impressed, “Alright, Spider-Man.”

She felt a warmth grow inside her when he called her that.

“Get me out of this thing.”

“Sorry!” She came out of the moment and scrambled to find the X-acto knife.


	2. Super Secret Mission

“New York...Queens...It’s a rough borough, but hey, it’s home.” Petra gruffed her voice as she recorded the highway on her way out of the city. Just the day before, the real life Tony Stark came to her apartment and invited her, or Spider-Man at least, to Germany for a super secret mission. To get Aunt May to go along with it, they told her that as a new recipient of the September Foundation, she had to attend the mandatory retreat over the weekend. They chalked up the super short notice to rushed scheduling on the foundation’s part.

“Who are you talking to?” The driver, Happy Hogan, asked from the front of the car. Mr. Stark had to go to Germany ahead of time, so Happy was her contact to take her there. She felt like a cool spy, and her heart raced with excitement.

“No one. Just making a little video of the trip.” Petra explained in her normal voice.

“You know you can’t show that to anyone.” Happy said unenthusiastically. Obviously, he had reservations about sneaking a 15-year-old girl to Europe, but he didn’t have to be so rude to her about it.

“Yeah, I know.” Petra said.

“Then why are you narrating in that voice?” He asked.

“Mmm, because it’s fun!” She replied, “And I’m testing out my guy voices so that no one will hear that I’m a girl when I’m Spider-Man.”

“Your normal voice is fine.” Happy said as he put on his sunglasses.

She pouted. So maybe her voice wasn’t super high-pitched and it was a little scratchy, but she didn’t think it made her sound boyish. Ned said it was velvety, but maybe he was kidding.

“...So why do they call you Happy?” She asked. He raised the window divider between them.

Instead of driving to the main airport, he took her to a jet in its own separate field. Of course Mr. Stark had a private plane, but she never dreamed she’d actually get to ride in it.

“Hey, should I go to the bathroom before?” She asked.

“There’s a bathroom on it.”

“Woah! No pilot? That’s awesome!” She kept the video going as she boarded and saw the empty cockpit. There was so many seats spread around, and so many compartments for snacks and beverages. She dropped her bag and plopped down in the comfy seat across from Happy. He was so lucky to work for Mr. Stark and get to ride in this all the time.

“Is that where you’re gonna sit?” Happy asked her.

“Yeah.”

“Is this your first time on a private plane?”

“My first time on any plane.” She said. Her heart raced even faster during takeoff. It always looked so smooth in the movies, but there was a rumble as the wheels rolled against the gravel.

“S-Should it be making that noise?” She asked as rumbling engines got louder, but Happy didn’t answer. He just picked himself up and chose a new seat farther away from her. At least it didn’t sound like a problem to him. She looked out the window and watched the ground get farther away and the trees get smaller until they looked like plastic toys, and the city below looked like Lego bricks.

One of the first things Petra did when she got her powers was check out the amazing views of the city from all the landmarks like the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge. It was like getting the different viewpoints in an Assassin’s Creed game, but she was doing it for real. Now this was a view that not even Spider-Man could get on their own, the view from above the clouds.

After a good hour in the flight, she realized that she still know any details about her mission. How could she figure out what to do if she didn’t know what exactly she was going to be doing? She was going to ask Happy, but he was sound asleep, snoring. She got curious as to just how deep of a sleeper he was and approached him slowly with the camera still rolling. She was only inches in front of his face before he snorted awake and she ran back to her seat, giggling. When she tried to ask him about the mission, he refused to answer completely. She had to piece together the few bits she managed to trick out of him.

“No one has actually told me why I’m in Berlin...or what I’m doing” Even when they landed in Berlin, she still didn’t have a whole answer, so she confided in her camera, “Something about Captain America going crazy?”

She already knew from the news that someone blew up the U.N building in Vienna, and that they suspected James Barnes, and every true Captain America fan knew that that was Bucky and he was Cap’s best friend in World War II. The news also talked about how Bucky had been a Russian spy for all these years? So was Cap somehow involved in it, too? She saw how Bucky was being crazy but what exactly was Cap doing that was so crazy?

She was so full of questions, but also ecstatic to take in all the culture around her as they walked to the hotel. She saw the actual Brandenburg Gate and ate an actual German soft pretzel. She waved at the locals who were nice enough to wave back. The hotel Mr. Stark booked for them was classy beyond her belief. She felt like a movie star with all the special treatment.

“This is you.” Happy pointed to her room.

“Oh, we’re neighbors?” She asked cheerily.

“We’re not _roommates._ ” He shot back, “Suit up.”

She rushed into her room and threw her bag down and launched herself onto the bed. It was so incredibly cozy that she remained there as she pulled off her pants. The hoodie could go over whatever shirt she was wearing, but the bottoms required red pantyhose and sweatpants. She attached her web shooters to each of her arms. She stuffed her hair into the ski-mask and looked at the suit in the mirror. It was good enough to make a decent first impression.

“Okay Petra, you got this...you got this…” She tried to get herself pumped in her reflection.

“What are you wearing?” Happy asked as he came through the door she accidentally forgot to shut.

“It’s my suit?”

“Where’s the case?” Happy sounded frustrated as they were getting pressed for time.

“What case?” She asked. She didn’t see any case when she came in and she couldn’t see one now.

Happy rolled his eyes and opened the door to the side.

“That’s not my- What?” She saw the door open up to a hallway and more rooms, “I thought that was a closet! This is still my room?”

“Go, please!”

“My room is way bigger than I-” Happy shoved her into the other room to hurry her up.

“Alright, I found the case, I found the case. Jeez!” She griped at being pushed. The case in question was a metal suitcase on the coffee table with a note on it that read “A minor upgrade. -TS.”

She unlocked the case and in true Iron Man fashion, it flipped open on its own and revealed a bunch of holographic screens showing the functions of the suit inside.

“Oh my God…” She freaked out and turned to Happy in shock. The spanking new suit had a sleeker design with webbing actually incorporated in it and covered cameras built into the mask as eyes and more than she could ever dream of.

With a dull expression, he just ordered, “Put it on.”

“Da-Uh-This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my-!”

“Let’s _go_!”

“Ah-buh-but I don’t understand! Is it for me?” She asked, afraid to touch it since it looked really expensive. Happy just walked away no matter how many times she called his name and asked him to wait.

She pulled off her mask and exclaimed, “This is insane! _INSANE_! Look at this thing. Look at the eyes! This is the greatest day of my life!”

Happy gave her one last warning to get moving before leaving her to change into the new suit.


	3. First Day

Happy dropped Petra off at the Liepzig-Halle airport near the runways, where she was least likely to be seen. As soon as Happy opened the door for her, she saw Mr. Stark standing and waiting for her. He still looked magnificently professional, but also like he hadn’t gotten any sleep since she last saw him.

“Miss Parker.” He nodded, looking at her, or at least the suit, up and down, “Looking very spiffy today, all thanks to me.”

“It’s so great, Mr. Stark. I can’t thank you enough. This is the best thing I’ve ever-” She was still overwhelmed by all of this.

“Okay, okay, you’re welcome, but I’m going to need you to calm down, because it’s mission time.” Mr. Stark lowered his sunglasses.

“Okay, sorry.” She quieted down but still breathed heavily in excitement.

“So in about two minutes, the warnings are going to go off to evacuate the airport. Cap and his band of renegades are going to try to escape with that helicopter on that pad over there.” Mr. Stark started to actually sound like Iron Man.

“So why are we fighting Captain America?” She finally asked.

Mr. Stark hissed and closed his eyes, “It’s a long tragic tale, but the gist of it is that Cap is wrong, but he thinks he’s right. Normally I admire that about him, but in this case, that makes him dangerous. Now he’s gonna try to tell you that there’s a lot about this that you don’t understand, but that’s okay. I just need you to stop him from making things worse than they already are. Got it?”

“Yeah…” She said with a nod, even though she still didn’t really get it, but she trusted Iron Man’s word on this.

“Your initial position will be behind those luggage carriers. So when he comes out, I’m going to try to talk some sense into him. If it doesn’t work, and I _really_ hope it doesn’t come to that, I’m going to give the signal, and that’s when you’re going to come in and do your thing. And remember, these guys are pros, don’t try to go toe-to-toe with them. Just keep your distance and web them up, okay?”

“Yes!” She said confidently as that part she got.

“Great.” He said as he walked away and all the pieces of his Iron Man suit flew on and put themselves together on his body. Then, the alarm went off.

“Woah…” Petra was in awe to see the Mark XLVI in person. Before he could fly away, she called out, “Wait! What’s the signal?!”

“You’ll know it.” He turned to her just as his mask covered his face and the eyes lit up, “Also, go for Cap’s legs.”

Petra’s heart fluttered as she watched him take off. How did all of this happen? Yesterday, she was just a regular student trying to balance homework and extracurricular activities and barely tapping into street-level vigilantism. At best, she was hoping to cross paths with the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen one day. Today, she was on a mission with Iron Man himself and he expected her to use her webs on Captain America? She pulled out her phone and started recording again when she hid in her designated spot and waited for the signal. She was recapping everything Iron Man said to her when she heard a loud zapping sound. She peeked her head out and saw the helicopter sparking and sizzling.

Then, she saw Captain America in all his costumed glory. He had the shield and everything. Then Iron Man confronted him with War Machine by his side. They were too far away for Petra to hear exactly what they were saying, but if it was enough for Iron Man to have his mask off, then it must have been pretty serious. She covered her mouth to squeal as more Avengers showed up.

“Okay, there’s Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow…” She kept recording as she tried to keep track of everyone, especially the unfamiliar full black suit, “...woah, who’s that new guy?”

“Underoos!”

Petra gasped, “That’s me! I gotta go, _I gotta go!_ ”

She left the phone in place and flipped into action. Since her task was to hinder Cap, she knew the first thing that would throw him off guard would be to steal his shield. It was just an impulsive thought, she didn’t believe she could actually bring herself to do it, and yet next thing she knew, she was kneeling on top of a vehicle, Captain America’s shield in her hands while his were webbed together at the wrist. It all happened so fast, she surprised herself and just kept her pose.

“Nice job, kid.” Iron Man told her.

“Thanks! I could have stuck the landing a little better, it’s just...new suit, but it’s nothing, Mr. Stark! It’s perfect, thank you!” She blabbered on in her anxiousness.

“Yeah, we don’t really need to start a conversation.” Mr. Stark stopped her, which let her know she needed to dial it back a bit.

“Okay…” She tried to relax her breathing, but her heart stopped altogether when her eyes met Captain America’s.

“Cap-Captain…” She awkwardly saluted, hoping he was as nice as he seemed on TV and wouldn’t try to kill her for this later, “Big fan. I’m Spider-Man.”

“Yeah, we’ll talk about it later.” Mr. Stark tried to quiet her down again, but as she said her own hero name, she realized she hadn’t been watching her voice. Did it come out too girly? Or was Happy right and it was mannish enough already?

“Hey everyone.” She said one last thing in a lower tone to keep up the charade.

“Good job.” Mr. Stark gave her a last warning, and with that she was silent, blushing and sweating under her costume already.

This time, Petra was within earshot of their argument. Apparently, whatever Cap was doing, he brought Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch into it. Iron Man was pleading with him that he was trying to keep him from tearing the Avengers apart, but Cap said Iron Man had already done that himself when he signed. Petra knew from the news that the Avengers were being made to sign something called the Sokovia Accords before the UN building blew up, but she didn’t know the details of it. It must have been pretty complicated if the Avengers were splitting up because of it.

“Alright, we’re done. You’re gonna turn Barnes over and you’re going to come with us _now_ because it’s us or a squad of J-SOC guys with no compunction about being polite!” Iron Man shouted at Cap.

So this did have to do with Bucky, or the Winter Soldier, or whatever they were calling him these days. Well, no wonder Cap wasn’t budging, but still, she didn’t know why Cap didn’t even look like he was listening to Iron Man. Weren’t they were supposed to be good friends? She knew that the Avengers couldn’t be perfect, but she was still shocked to see what was going on behind the scenes.

Captain America stood in silence as Iron Man waited for his answer, and then he lifted his bound hands as an arrow tore through her webbing. That must have been Hawkeye! Then, she saw something small and metallic crawling on the shield.

“Hey guys, someth-” She tried to warn them, but the thing suddenly grew to a normal-sized man and kicked her in the jaw as he stole the shield back.

She figured she wouldn’t be able to hold it forever, but it was still awesome to have touched it at all.

“I believe this is yours, Captain America.” The guy handed it back. Petra didn’t recognize this one either, but she had to admit the shrinking and growing was kind of cool, even if her jaw was throbbing now. Also, since that was technically the first punch, the air got riotous and things went out of control from there, with Iron Man and War Machine splitting up to take down different guys hiding throughout the airport.

“Hey Mr. Stark, what should I do?” Petra asked in the confusion.

“What we discussed! Keep your distance, web ‘em up.”

“Okay, copy that.” She said as she ran towards the terminal, where she heard War Machine say that Wilson and Barnes were at. She knew that Wilson was Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, AKA totally on Cap’s team, and she was surprised to hear that Bucky was here, too. While it sucked that everyone was fighting, it was still exciting for her to see even more of the Avengers and their pals.

She leaped up to the top floor of the terminal and crawled along the glass windows as she followed them. She saw them notice her, so now she had no choice but to attack them before they attacked her first. If Bucky was as dangerous as the news said he was, she definitely didn’t want to let him get the first blow.

She webbed up a rope and swung in through the window feet first, landing a nice kick on Falcon. While he was down, she went after Bucky with a solid punch, but quickly caught that he was trying to punch even harder with a shining arm. Rather than risk breaking her knuckles, she opened her hand to catch the punch instead, and inspected what the news neglected show. His face was definitely that of the Bucky from her trading cards, but his hair was long and messy, and most importantly, he had a new feature.

“You have a metal arm?!” She gushed, “That is awesome, dude!”

Getting distracted was a big rookie mistake, and she paid for it when Falcon carried her off on his wings. It was not like how she dreamed it would be, with her trying to elbow him in the face yelling, “You have the right to remain silent!”

She was able to wiggle herself free and swing around to follow him and evade his shots. However, a shiver tingled throughout her as she realized she wasn’t keeping track of Bucky.

“Oh God.” She said to herself as she barely dodged a flying piece of debris that he had thrown at her. She caught it with her web and swung it right back at him, “Hey buddy, I think you lost this!”

She was pretty sure she nailed him, but when her back was turned Falcon swung back and kicked her off her perch. Before she could hit the ground, she fired a web that would allow her to swing from under him and face his back and shoot for his wings. The webbing stuck to the gears which made him unable to fly. He crashed into a kiosk which gave her the chance to web his hands to the railing.

“Those wings carbon fiber?” She asked him while she had the chance.

“Is this stuff coming out of you?” Falcon asked. She was delighted that he was at least looking at her handiwork.

“That would explain the rigidity-flexibility ratio, which, gotta say, that’s awesome, man.”

“I don’t know if you’ve been in a fight before, but there’s usually not this much talking.” Falcon said irritated, which was understandable considering she immobilized him.

“Alright, sorry. My bad.” She stopped, especially since now Bucky was running up to join him. When they were close together she kicked them both to the level below and shot all the webs she needed to keep Falcon wrapped up and Bucky’s metal arm pinned to the ground.

“Guys, look, I’d love to keep this up, but I’ve only got one job here today and I gotta impress Mr. Stark, so I’m really sorry.”

She tried to shoot one more web to keep Bucky down, but it was caught by a small drone which it carried it off and took Petra with it. She bonked her head on the metal framing on her way out the window, and couldn’t help but let out a high-pitched scream as it released her to fall to the pavement. For her first official fight, it could have been a lot worse, but she still felt like she embarrassed herself. So much for first impressions.


	4. Toe to Toe

Petra picked herself off the ground and saw the the fight concentrating into one big group. The Vision flew above them all as Iron Man’s team gathered behind him. She swung in to join them, and immediately thought that Vision looked much cooler than he did on TV. She was still curious as to whether he was just a robot or something more, since the Avengers hadn’t said much about him since his debut in Sokovia last year.

As the teams formed two lines to face each other, Petra quickly took the spot between Black Widow and War Machine. She looked at the rest of the guys to see what they were doing, but everyone just stared ahead, so she did that as well. When Cap’s team walked forward, so did Iron Man’s. However, when Cap’s team started running towards them, Petra got nervous.

“They’re not stopping…” She said.

“Neither are we.” Iron Man said.

When the two sides finally came head to head, she stopped just before the clash and backed up to watch for a good target. If this tactic worked in dodgeball, then it should work here. She shot her webs at different people, but they moved so fast, they evaded them each time. As she tried to swing around, Scarlet Witch was levitating debris around as projectiles to hit her. Finally, once she was distracted, Petra could swing towards Falcon for a rematch. However, she was stopped in her path by Captain America, whose shield sliced through her webs mid-swing. This time when she fell, she was able to roll and catch herself on the luggage conveyor belt.

“That thing does not obey the laws of physics at all!” She shouted as she noticed it had somehow flew all the way back to Cap’s hand. Maybe he used magnetics.

“Look kid, there’s a lot going on here that you don’t understand.” Cap said to her, almost word-for-word from what Iron Man said.

“Mr. Stark said you’d say that. Wow.” She said as she webbed his shield and his legs this time, and pulled him towards her while she simultaneously accelerated towards him with a lunging kick. She landed her strike, and Cap fell back towards the trucks and the shield fell out of his hands.

She was so shocked that that worked that her pride swelled in her stomach, “He also said to go for your legs!”

Cap got up and ran for his shield, but before he could reach it, Petra shot two webs, one for each of his hands like puppet strings. She used all her strength to counter his pulls, and for a moment their efforts were matched. Then, Cap got clever and spun around to roll the webs around himself and throw her off balance.

When she got up, she aimed for the shield one more time. Surely, he would catch on, but it was one of her few moves that was at least semi-successful so far. When he grabbed the webbing and pulled her in to smack her in the face with the shield, she knew she had officially worn out that trick. She tried so hard not to cry out like a girl when the metal made hard contact with her face, but yelped out all the same. This time, she made a brief retreat to high ground on the luggage carriers.

“Stark tell you anything else?” Cap asked.

“That you’re wrong...you think you’re right…” She panted, “...that makes you dangerous.”

She caught her breath and jumped off the carrier to swing around it, giving her the momentum to charge towards him with her webs ready to go. However, he’d caught on to all of her little tricks by now and evaded in time, and also jumped and landed a swift kick to her chest, knocking her back into the poles holding the loading platform.

“Guess he had a point,” Cap said as he knocked the poled out of the way and made the platform drop down on her. She caught it in time and hoisted it up, demonstrated her enhanced strength. Hopefully, he had caught onto that power of hers or else she would have to Captain America tried to kill her.

“You got heart, kid. Where you from?” Captain America asked her personally, which made her instantly forgive him for all of this.

“Q-Queens…” She struggled out with a strained voice.

“Brooklyn.” He smiled at her as he went on his way.

The smile is what really did her in. Her knees were quickly weakening, and it took a second wind to hurl the platform forward. Once her legs got the strength again, she rushed back to where she dropped her phone. She had to record this memory while it was fresh.

“Okay so the craziest thing just happened! I just had a fight with Captain America and I stole his shield and I threw it at him and I-” She was interrupted when she heard a loud monstrous thud behind her. She turned around and saw that the guy who could shrink was now as big as Godzilla.

“Holy SHIT!” She screamed, “What the hell, he’s big now! I gotta go!”

She dropped the phone once again and ran back into the fight. The giant guy had grabbed War Machine by the heel and tossed him out of the way.

“I got him!” She yelled as she webbed his back and got carried away with him. Before he could hit a ground plane, she stopped herself on a truck and pulled in the opposite direction to stop him. He regained control just in time thanks to her help. As he flew back towards Giant Man, as she called him in her head, she held on for the ride.

She got just close enough to web herself to the Giant Man instead, and now she felt like a real spider as she crawled along his arm and pestered him with kicks and punches where she could. Then she crawled on his back in that spot that was just out of his reach. As he moved around, she crawled over his face to block his vision, but he knocked her off with an annoyed, “Get off.”

When Vision knocked Giant Man into the plane, she had an idea. Knocking him off balance was the only way to take him down.

“Hey,” she asked over the comm, “Did you guys ever see that really old movie, _Empire Strikes Back_?”

_“Jesus, Tony, how old is this guy?”_

_“I don’t know, I didn’t carbon-date him, he’s on the young side!”_

Well, at least on the bright side, her cover was still intact.

“You know that part on the snow planet, with the walking thingies?!” She suggested as she swung around Giant-Man. She wrapped her webs tightly around his legs, hoping one of them would catch the hint.

_“Maybe the kid’s onto something.”_

_“High now, Tony. Go high.”_

They actually listened to her! She swung around his legs a few more times as both Iron Man and War Machine uppercut the Giant Man and knocked him down.

“Yes!” She laughed in excitement and gave them a thumbs up, “That was awesome!”

However, her pride got the best of her and she lost her concentration. She didn’t see the giant hand swinging back her way. The back of his hand knocked her whole body off her web and she flew backwards, breaking past wooden cargo and rolling on the cement. Her head hit the ground on the last roll, which made her fuzzy but she still remained conscious. She kept still and felt too woozy to get back up. Last time she felt this disoriented was not a good time.

“Hey kid, are you alright?” She heard a faded and distorted adult voice approach her. The noise scared her and she instinctively threw her fists defensively, but the man caught them. This made her even more terrified as she struggled and pulled harder.

“Whoa. Same side.” His voice and face became clearer, “Guess who? Hi, it’s me.”

She finally recognized Mr. Stark and stopped struggling, “Oh...hey...hey, sir…”

“Yeah.” He loosened his grip, but didn’t let go of her wrists.

“That was scary.” She panted.

“Yeah, you’re done, all right?” He ordered sternly.

“What? I’m good, I’m fine.” Petra said as tried to pull her wrists free.

“Good job. Stay down.” He said calmly, “Stay down.”

“I’m good, I gotta get him back.” She told him, “Hey, let go of me! Let go!”

“You’re going home, or I’ll call Aunt May.” He commanded, and then he finally let go, “You’re done.”

“Wait, Mr. Stark...I’m not done, I-” She crawled back on her knees but found that her head was still too fuzzy to stand. Also, the adrenaline finally died down and her limbs felt like lead pipes, “Okay, I’m done...I’m done.”

Iron Man and the rest of his crew took off after Cap, who had escaped in a quinjet. Petra was left to scramble and find her phone again and call Happy for a ride back to the hotel.

* * *

  
The first thing she did when she got back to her room was take a nice hot shower and change into her nightgown, with the memories from the fight still reeling in her head. She grabbed her phone and recorded one more story.

“It was the most amazing thing that’s ever happened! So Mr. Stark is like ‘Hey underoos!’ and I just sorta flipped in and I stole Cap’s shield and I was like ‘Hey what’s up everybody’ and then-”

A knock interrupted her, so she told them to give her a second as she put her phone down and put on a robe before flipping over the bed and answering the door. It was Happy in his own bathrobe.

 

“Hey…” She said casually.

“...We have thin walls here.”


	5. Petra's Daily Life

Petra packed up her clothes and souvenirs the next morning, taking extra care to fold her new Spider-Man suit neatly back into its suitcase. She walked out of the hotel, following behind Happy with a hop in her step. Yesterday had truly been the greatest day of her life, and she was so excited to imagine what it meant for the rest of it. Now that she had held her own against the other Avengers, she hoped that they would take her on more missions, when they were on better terms of course.

She was disappointed to see that Mr. Stark wasn’t there for the flight back to New York, but then again, his suit could travel faster than airplanes. However, he surprised her when he was waiting on the strip in a limousine when the private jet landed.

“Hey Mr. Stark! Did you catch Captain America?” She asked as she scooted next to him in the back seat.

He smiled weakly and dropped his blue sunglasses down, “Not quite, but it’s fine. It’s handled.”

“What about the other Avengers?” She asked.

“They’re okay. Everyone’s fine.” He said and left it at that.

As they sat quietly on the ride back to her apartment, she tried to be sneaky with her camera to record Mr. Stark, but he caught her trying to hide the phone light with her finger.

He tilted the phone up with a poke, “What, are you making a little video diary?”

She blushed in embarrassment, “...Yeah…”

“It’s alright, I’d probably have done the same thing.” Mr. Stark smiled.

“I told her not to do it. She was filming everything. I’m gonna go ahead and wipe the chip.” Happy explain.

“Hey hey hey hey, you know what? We should actually make an alibi video for your aunt anyway. You ready?” Mr. Stark pulled off his sunglasses and faced the camera, “You rolling? Get in the frame.”

Petra scooted closer with excitement and held the camera in front of them, switching it to selfie mode.

“Hey May! How you doing? What are you wearing? Something skimpy I hope.” Stark jested, but it caught Petra off guard. She glared at him as he was laughing.

“That’s inappropriate.” He shook his head and patted her shoulder, “Let’s start over you can edit that later. 3, 2, 1- Hey May! Gosh, I, uh, want to tell you what an incredible job your niece did this weekend at the Stark Internship Retreat. Everyone was impressed, she really _leaned in_ -”

“C’mon!” Happy yelled from the driver’s seat as horns honked, “It’s a freaking merge, I’m sorry.”

“This is because you’re not on Queen’s Boulevard.” Stark told him before turning back to the camera, “See, Happy is hoping to get pumped up to Asset Management, he was Forehead of Security and before that he was just a driver-”

“That’s a private conversation.” Happy groaned, and Petra turned the camera to him, “I don’t like joking about this. It was hard for me to talk to you for a while.”

“No, seriously though, was he snoring a bunch in the hotel room-”

“Okay, here we are.” Happy cut off as he swerved alongside the curb.

Petra sat awkwardly as Stark laughed at him before telling him, “Happy, could you give us a moment?”

“You want me to leave the car?” Happy asked in disbelief.

“Why don’t you grab Peter’s case out of the trunk?” Stark told him.

Petra thought he misspoke and tried to correct him, “Oh my stuff is in the duffle bag, the case is for the suit.”

“That’s right, the suit is yours.” Mr. Stark said casually, as if he hadn’t just shaken her whole world then and there. Petra’s ears drowned out the rest of his words as her heartbeat overtook the sound.

She slowly lowered her phone, “I...I can keep the suit?”

“Yeah, we were just talking about it.” Stark said as he replaced his blue glasses, “Do me a favor though. Happy’s kind of your point guy in this. Don’t stress him out. Don’t do anything stupid. I’ve seen his cardiogram. Alright?”

“Yes!” She said nodding gleefully.

“Don’t do anything I would do, and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He tried to explain, “There’s a little grey area in there, and that’s where you operate.”

“What- Does that mean that I’m an Avenger?” She asked hopefully.  
Before Stark could explain the details, Happy knocked on the window holding the metallic case, “This it?”

“7th floor.”

“I can take that up, you don’t have to take it.” She said, cutting Happy a break for once.

“You gonna take it? Thank you.” Happy said and plopped it right outside the door.

“So, uh, when’s our next ‘retreat,’ you know?” Petra asked, rubbing her legs together eagerly.

“What, next mission?” Tony said.

“Y-Yeah, missions, the missions…” Petra stammered, but tried to act cool.

“We’ll call you.”

“Do you have my numbers?” She had her phone ready to add new contacts.

“No, I mean ‘we’ll call you’ like _someone_ will call you.” He clarified.

“Oh,” She nodded, “From your team.”

When Mr. Stark leaned towards her, her heart skipped a beat as she was dumbfounded. Was this what she thought this was? She followed her instinct and hugged him.

“That’s not a hug, I’m just grabbing the door for you.” He pushed the car door open and pulled away, “We’re not there yet. We’re really not there yet.”

She quickly pulled away as well and blushed even harder than before. She wanted to smack herself for being so weird. She quickly got out of the car to escape the suffocating air, so fast that she almost missed Mr. Stark’s quick bye to her.

The limo drove off as she picked up her bag and her case. She beamed to herself as she strolled into the apartment building.

“They’re gonna call me.” She squealed to herself with glee.

* * *

 

For the first few days, she texted nearly every hour.

_“Hey, just got up. Tell Mr. Stark I’m ready for the day’s mission!”_ She texted as soon as she woke up.

  
_“On my way to school. If anything’s happening on east of 19th, let me know because I’ll totally be there ;D”_ She texted on the bus.

_“Lunch break! If you need me to sneak out in the next 30 minutes, I’m so game.”_ She texted in one hand as she held her lunch tray in the other.

_“English class is soooo boring, rather be literally anywhere. Got any missions for me?”_ She texted from under the desk as she pretended to look up at the teacher.

When he didn’t text back, she tried to tell herself that maybe his phone was glitching and not receiving her texts.

_“Hey, I think my phone is being weird. If you get this message, text back ‘Thwip!’”_ She waited, and waited, but all she got back was a _Seen at 10:11pm_. She had to accept that as proof he was ignoring her. She lay on her bed and stuffed her face into the pillow and screamed.

Maybe she scared him off by being clingy and annoying. By the second week, she promised herself no more texts. The last thing she wanted was for Happy to tell Mr. Stark that she was a crazy person. Spider-Man was supposed to be cool. So she had to play it cool. The next time Happy actually texted, she was going to wait two hours before she texted back, saying something like _“Sorry, I was busy. You called?”_

But that didn’t happen. Two disappointing months passed, and not a single text from Happy. If she didn’t have the actual suit in her backpack, she would have thought the whole thing was a dream. How stupid was she to think that Tony Stark would contact her on a daily basis? He was so busy doing billionaire things and Avenger things, that she probably didn’t even cross his mind. As she walked to school, she had to accept that her horse-drawn carriage had turned back into a pumpkin, a rotting greasy pumpkin called Petra Parker’s life. On the last street in front of the stairs, the car coming up didn’t wait for her to cross and instead sped up towards her. She quickly leaped to the other side of the sidewalk and looked behind her.

“Sup, Penis Parker?” Flash Thompson called out to her loudly with a devious smile as if he didn’t just try to run her over.

She rolled her eyes and ignored him. He’d be calling her that ever since his party. Yeah, she went more than a little crazy then, when her powers made her feel invincible, but she didn’t suck anyone’s dick in the bathroom like the rumors said. Still, when he called her that, it made her feel like all eyes were on her. She kept moving, keeping her head low and her shoulders scrunched close together as she made her way to her locker.

“Join me and together, we’ll build my new Lego Death Star!” She heard Ned’s voice from behind her and could feel the toy on her shoulder.

“What?” She turned around, “No way, that’s awesome! How many pieces?”

“Three thousand, eight hundred and three.” Ned boasted. Petra could see the cheerleaders behind them were mocking them, but she ignored them, too.

“That’s insane!” She replied as she put her books away.

“I know. You want to build it tonight?” Ned asked.

“I can’t tonight, I’ve got the Stark-” She said, but he knew what was coming.

“Mhm, Stark Internship.” He finished.

“Yeah, exactly…” She mumbled shyly.

“Always got that internship.” Ned said in disappointment.

“Yeah, well, hopefully it’ll lead to a real job with him.” She explained as they walked to class together.

“That would be so sweet.” Ned thought about it, “He’d be all, ‘good job on those spreadsheets, Petra. Here’s a gold coin. Also, can you grab me a coffee before you leave? Thanks, toots.”

“He’s not that kind of boss, and no one says toots anymore.” Petra insisted.

“Well, I don’t know.” Ned shrugged, “So I’ll know the basic bones of the Death Star at my place, and then I’ll come by afterwards because for the most part, the difficult thing would be the base of it. The top half we could knock out in two hours tops.”

Petra zoned out as soon as she saw Liz walking down the hall, talking her friends. She was the kind of girl who could do anything. She was beautiful, fiercely intelligent, genuinely kind, and she had the confidence Petra could only dream of. Petra wanted to be her friend, and she kind of was. She first met Liz when she was still in middle school and Liz was just starting high school. Petra’s school back then didn’t have a lot of scientific clubs for her to join, so she signed up for a bunch of classes at the Boys and Girls Club of America. They were fun and she was able to make friends with kids of different ages who loved science as much as her. Liz was a volunteer there who helped her group with their projects. It was Liz who told her that she should apply for the magnet high school since she was a ‘natural’ engineer. She used to look forward to going so much, and she lit up every time she saw Liz.

And then, the summer before her freshman year...the _thing_ happened. She stopped going to the BGCA meetings, and she tried to blackout all of her social media altogether. She still went to school, but afterwards, she would just come home and sleep. No TV and no video games. A week went by, and no one texted to ask where she was. It was like it didn’t even matter she was gone. And then, Liz did. Liz texted her three simple words.

_“Hey. You okay?”_

When she woke up to those words on that cloudy Sunday morning, she burst into tears. Finally, someone had reached out, and even though that was what she wanted, she still wasn’t ready to tell Liz what happened. It took her two days to finally text her back. She got the guts to text her all about it, and Liz listened. She encouraged her to tell her Aunt and Uncle about it, so she did. Liz did what she could to help Petra out in her hour of need. She got the _thing_ handled at the BGCA so that Petra wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. As a gesture of good will, she invited Petra to her birthday slumber party that was usually only for high school girls.

Petra was so excited to go and be close to Liz, her protector, her hero. However, when the fun girly antics came to the inevitable game of _Truth or Dare_ , Petra froze. The idea of sharing secrets terrified her, and she locked herself in the bathroom, trying to keep herself from crying. Eventually, she gave up and called her Uncle Ben to come take her home. She couldn’t even face Liz to apologize before she left.

Once she started high school at the Midtown School of Science and Technology, she had a whole bunch of clubs to choose from, so she signed up for as many as possible to keep her mind occupied. She was shocked when she walked into that first Academic Decathlon meeting to find out that Liz was the captain. Liz also looked surprised when she saw her, but she never spoke to her about the slumber party, or the _thing_ , not in the two years since it happened.

So Petra watched Liz as they met eyes for a brief moment in the hallway and shared a knowing look.


	6. School Daze

By the time Petra got to her physics class, she was already mentally checked out. If she hadn’t already mastered angles and trajectory, she wouldn’t be able to swing from building to building like she could. Now that she’d been out there as Spider-Man proving herself to the Avengers, nothing else seemed fulfilling anymore. She wished that she could graduate and be a full-time Avenger already, but she was still in the early days of her sophomore year.

As the teacher lectured, Petra opened her laptop and pretended to be taking notes when she was actually checking out the latest videos of Spider-Man on Youtube. The same video that Mr. Stark had shown her when he recruited her was being reposted on several copycat channels where it was getting thousands of views each time. That’s how she knew she was truly going viral. Now that she had a nicer suit, maybe she should be the one capitalizing on it. She deleted her Instagram account a couple years back, but maybe now it was time to begin anew. Besides, having an official Spider-Man account would give her control of the story again, instead of leaving it up to local hearsay.

“Petra.” Her teacher called out her name, “You still with us?”

“Uh, yeah.” Petra slowly lowered her laptop screen and looked at the board, quickly reading the problem about the linear acceleration of the forces acting on a pendulum. She thought she heard Flash mention something about mass which wouldn’t matter in this case so she answered, “Mass cancels out so it’s just gravity times sine.”

“Right.” The teacher turned to Flash, “See Flash, being the fastest isn’t always the best if you are wrong.”

The rest of the class laughed, which made Flash turn to Petra and whispered maliciously, “You’re dead.”

Petra pursed her lips at him and flipped her short hair as she checked the clock. So what if Flash was jealous that she was smarter than him? She missed the part where that was _her_ problem. That’s probably why he called her Penis Parker, too. Because he was butthurt that she didn’t hook up with him at his party. She was so done with high school boys, and just boys in general.

Chemistry class was actually useful to her, because that’s where she could make her web fluid in secret. Every student was assigned their own drawers and equipment for the year, so as long as she kept her drawer locked, her teacher didn’t have to know what was in there. She looked forward at the teacher while her eyes peeked to the side as she added the toulene to her beaker. The web solution poured over, so she quickly shut the drawer before someone noticed. Before class was over, she poured the web fluid into water bottle that remained in her backpack for safe keeping until she could take it home and put it into her suit.

At lunch, she sat with Ned and Michelle, another girl from the Decathlon team. Michelle was the cool and brooding type who didn’t care what anyone thought about her. Even though this was a magnet school for the sciences, Michelle seemed to prefer her English and Writing class. When Petra asked her about it, Michelle said that she chose this school because it looked better on her college applications. Even though she sat right next to Petra, she didn’t usually partake in her conversations with Ned. Instead, she had her nose in one of the books from her weekly stack.

“Did Liz get a new top?” Petra asked as she watched Liz put up a homecoming banner in the cafeteria.

“No, we’ve seen that before, but never with that skirt.” Ned said.

Petra looked at Liz’s legs as she stood on the ladder. She had such nicely toned and blemish-free skin. If Petra had legs like that, she’d have probably chosen shorts for her Spider-Man uniform. It would make the summers easier.

“We should probably stop staring before it gets creepy though.” Petra noted to herself.

“Too late.” Michelle said as she looked up from her book, “You guys are losers.”

“Then why do you sit with us?” Ned leaned over past Petra to look at her.

“Because I don’t have other friends.” Michelle said as she looked back at her novel.

Petra smiled. Michelle was really something.

* * *

  
Her last period was her Decathlon class which usually led to a hour-long after school Decathlon study session, but she had something else she needed to do after school that day, and every day after that.

“Petra, it’s Nationals. Is there no way you can take one weekend off?” Her coach sounded disappointed to say the least.

“I can’t go to Washington because if Mr. Stark needs me, then I have to make sure that I’m here.” Petra explained to him as quietly as she could, but it still wasn’t private enough considering the whole team was there.

“You’ve never even been in the same room as Tony Stark.” Flash interjected.

“Wait, what’s happening?” Cindy, another team member, asked.

“Petra’s not going to Washington.” Sally explained as she highlighted her notes on the floor.

  
Her other teammates also sounded shocked and disappointed, asking her why. Even Liz was concerned.

“Really? Right before Nationals?” She asked.

Petra was about to explain to her, but Michelle jumped in, “She already quit Marching Band and Robotics lab.”

That only made Liz more concerned, considering she remembered the last time Petra dropped so many activities, and why. She wanted to ask her about it, but she knew it wasn’t something to bring up in front of everyone, so she left her alone for now.

“Flash, you’re in for Petra.” She said.

“Oof, I don’t know…” Flash mocked, “...I gotta check my calendar first. I got a hot date with Black Widow coming up. It’s actually a double date with Iron Man and his new girl on the side, so I guess I’ll meet you there, Parker.”

“Gross, Flash!” Petra had put up with him all day and now she had come to a boil, “That’s not what an internship is! Not that you’d know because you’ll never get one!”

“Ooh, so sensitive.” Flash leaned back in his seat, “C’mon, I saw you at my party. I know you like them older.”

Petra’s face went stone cold. She drew into herself, just waiting for the day to end. As soon as that bell rang, she was already out the door. When she was sure no one was around, she leaped over the school fence, finally breathing the fresh air of a New York in need of Spider-Man.


	7. On Patrol

Before going on patrol, Petra visited her favorite deli, Delmar’s Deli-Grocery, for some snacks.

“What’s up, Mr. Delmar?” She greeted the owner as soon as she walked in, grabbing a couple packages of sour gummy worms and placing them on the counter.

“Hey, Miss Parker, #5 right?” The friendly man greeted and remembered her usual order.

“Yeah, and uh, with pickles and can you smush it down real flat? Thanks.” She added.

“You got it, boss.” The worker behind the counter headed for the kitchen.

“How’s your aunt?” Mr. Delmar asked.

Petra pursed her lips. For the past 5 months, she’d been swatting guys off Aunt May like flies. Like yes, she was a beautiful woman, but it was like every man over the age of 30 in Queens had set a timer for exactly 90 days after Uncle Ben’s funeral. Still, Petra gave Mr. Delmar the benefit of the doubt.

“Yeah, she’s alright.” Petra said nonchalantly with her arms tucked in.

Then Mr. Delmar said something to his cook with the words _tía_ and _italiana_ and _buenissima_ , and Petra knew she’d have to grab the swatter.

“Como está tu hija, eh?” She asked in return, with a sly bite of her lip.

“Muy bien, gracias. Five dollars.” Mr. Delmar responded as he rung her up, completing missing Petra’s implication. Petra squeezed her fist and grunted to herself. It just sounded too innocent and friendly coming out of her. She handed over the money and walked over to Murph, Delmar’s cat, to give him a few soft pets of his fur.

“So how was school?” Mr. Delmar asked her.

“Uh, you know, boring. Got better things to do.” Petra shrugged.

“Stay in school, kid. Stay in school.” Mr. Delmar warned, holding his hands up, “Otherwise, you might end up like me.”

She mimicked him, “Why? This is great.”

“Best sandwiches in Queens.” He recited his slogan from the banner and handed her her food.

As soon as she left the store, she bolted in excitement for the nearest park bathroom so she could change. She kicked off her shoes before she reached the stall and giggled as she locked the door behind her. She stripped down to her camisole undershirt and dance shorts and pulled the Spider-Man uniform out of her backpack. The trick was that it fit loosely at first for a quick change, and then once she pressed the spider logo on the chest, it automatically adjusted itself to fight tightly on her body. She grabbed her sandwich out of her bag and webbed the whole backpack to the ceiling of the bathroom. As she tapped on the webshooters, it turned the suit on gave her everything she needed to take on the day.

After a few quick stretches, she opened the door and zoomed towards the nearest building so she could leap and crawl to the rooftop. She perched on the chimney and looked at the view of the city, muttering under her breath, “Finally.”

The first crime of the day she spotted was a bike thief with chain splitting shears in his backpack who was speeding down the sidewalk with no care towards the people around him. She didn’t to swing very long to get ahead of him and drop herself right in his way.

“Hey could you hold this for a second?” She asked sweetly as she stuck her stretched out webbing on his chest, “Thank you.”

When she let go, the elastic webbing pulled him up and suspended several feet in the air, leaving the bike free for her to grab. It was only then that she realized she didn’t know who or where the bike was stolen from, so she had no idea how to return it. Her first hope was that the real owner had followed the thief so she shouted out, holding the bike over her head, “Hey, is this anybody’s bike?”

There was no answer, not even from the next man she saw coming out of the store in front of her, so she did the next best thing and borrowed a pen from somebody so she could leave a note on it reading “Is this your bike? If not, don’t steal!- Spider-Man”

She took a picture of it for good measure so she could post it on Twitter to possibly alert the owner. As she continued her patrol, she gave more weight to the idea of Spider-Man having an official Instagram. That way, not only Mr. Stark, but the whole internet could see the good she was doing. The bike picture would make a good first post showing a good deed instead of a self-absorbed selfie. Although, she knew that she would definitely post selfies in the suit as well, just as long as the account wasn’t ALL selfies, it seemed like a great idea.

When she hitched a ride on top of a train, she had time to actually sit and check her phone. She figured, why not? If she didn’t start an account now, someone could start a fake account later, so it was in her best interest to start at the beginning of her popularity. She started by making a new Gmail account strictly for Spider-Man, and then linked that account for the new Instagram which she called _Spider-Man_Official_. She took one quick selfie for the profile picture and then posted the stolen bike picture with the location of where she left it in the caption. All from her phone over the course of about 5 minutes.

On one street, some guy even pointed her out, yelling at her, “Hey! You’re that spider guy on Youtube, right?”

“Call me Spider-Man!” She yelled back in her lowest voice. Her stomach filled with butterflies that she was getting recognized.

“Okay, Spider-Man. Do a flip!” The guy said, with another guy watching.

She was new to the concept of dealing with fans so she just did as she was asked and performed a complete backflip on the rooftop. It was a small audience to please, but it still felt great to hear them cheer for her. It gave her the boost to look harder throughout the city for people who needed help.

The next person she saw was an older-looking woman who was going in circles around the same two blocks. She leaped down from the rooftops to ask the woman if she needed some help, but the woman only spoke Spanish, Dominican Spanish from the sound of it. So Petra listened for the key Spanish words that she knew to figure out that the woman needed directions to the hospital to visit her aunt, but she was confused because there were different clinics around this area. So Petra helped point her in the right direction, and the lady was so nice she offered to buy her a churro. Petra tried to decline, but the lady insisted, so she agreed in exchange that she take a picture with her.

After that, the evening got kind of dull. Still, even just playing around in the suit Mr. Stark gave her was a lot more fun that doing homework in the library. She thought she found a carjacking in progress, especially since the guy was trying to slip through the window with a jemmy. She hopped down on the car and webbed his face, clunking his head into the frame.

“You shouldn’t steal cars, it’s bad!” She said, as the car alarm went off, and flipped back to the sidewalk.

“It’s my car, dumbass!” He shouted. All the neighbors confirmed it when they came out to yell at them to shut off the blaring alarm.

“That’s not your car, it’s HIS car!” The shop owner next door scolded her.

“How was I supposed to know it was his car? He was putting that in the window!” She defended herself even though she was more than embarrassed. So this one was a fluke. It happened sometimes. She fled before things got too rowdy. She swung away to leave the guy to deal with it himself since she didn’t know how to turn off alarms. It still threw her off her mojo, though. She missed her moment to web the next building and slid against the rooftop, faceplanting like a toddler who can’t walk.

“I’m good. I’m good.” She declared and picked herself back up again.

She took a break on a fire stairwell as the sun began to set. She didn’t want to end the day on such a sour note, but today had been such a slow day already. She went ahead and checked the new Instagram and found that she already had 15 new followers. That cheered her right up. She posted about the Dominican lady but decided to leave out the not-carjacking incident. The stolen bike post also had several likes already and even a comment from someone sending good wishes that the bike owner will find it.

She flicked her wrist so she could take out the chip from her webshooters, but the thing shot out and she almost dropped it. She caught it just over the railing, but as she put it away, she could see a group of guys in thick coats making some noise and breaking into the closed bank after hours. Definitely robbers.

“Finally, something good.” She said, and leaped off of the stairs.


	8. Rough End

Petra snuck into the bank by slowly opening the glass door and gently shutting it behind her without the robbers noticing her. She saw that they had cut the ATMs wide open with some sort of laser tech. She still wanted to make a cool entrance before they realized she was there, so she leaned against the door frame and put her hand on her hips.

She cleared her throat and said in her cool guy voice, “Sup, guys. You forget your pin number?”

The whole group looked at her in silence, wearing plastic Avengers masks that they probably got at the dollar store.

“Woah, you’re the Avengers!” She said facetiously, as the “Iron Man” cocked his shotgun and walked towards her, “What are you guys doing here?”

She webbed the gun and swung it to the side, knocking over him and the “Thor” off balance. The angered “Thor” then tried to elbow her in the face, but she grabbed it and threw it in the “Hulk’s” direction.

“Thor. Hulk. Good to finally meet your guys.” She said cheerily as she jumped up and latched her hands to the ceiling, grabbing “Thor” with her legs and kicking him into the glass-encased poster on the wall, “Thought you’d be more handsome in person.”

When she hung upside down from the ceiling, “Iron Man” tried punching her in the face, but her reflexes swung her head the other way every time.

“Iron Man! Hey, what are you doing robbing a bank? You’re a billionaire.” She said as she grabbed his fist and threw him into the “Hulk.”

The “Captain America” held up a giant three-pronged device that was bigger than his chest. She jumped towards him to wrestle it out of his hands, but before she could reach him, he activated the device and it caught her mid-air, levitating her.

“Ugh...this feels so weird!” She struggled to speak as she saw blue glowing forces radiating out of the device and keeping her suspended at all sides. He threw it forward and sent her crashing into the broken display as well.

“Wha-What is that thing?!” She exclaimed with widening eyes as she looked up from the ground. He used it on her again, moving it up and down to knock her into the ceiling, back on the floor, and back to the ceiling again, “I’m starting...to think...you’re not...the Avengers!”

Before he could throw her again, she latched her fingers to the floor to keep herself grounded, and webbed the deposit slip table with her free hand. She pulled it toward herself to knock “Captain America” on the ground. Now, she could flip around from the ceiling to the walls to kick the other guys around one at a time.  
“Okay, guys. Let’s wrap this up. It’s a school night.” She said as she kicked “Thor” through the glass wall and webbed the levitating contraption to the wall before “Iron Man” could use it again.

She leaped closer to him and pulled his mask away from his face, “So how did jerks like you get tech like this?”

She heard a loud powering up noise, and snapped her head to see “Hulk” aiming a large purple glowing laser at her.

“No. Wait, wait!” She yelled as she leaped out of the way. The laser missed her but shot right through the glass walls. The strength of the beam was too much for him and he dropped it, sending the laser around the whole building. The dust and debris filled the air, and Petra looked across the street to see that Delmar’s Deli-Grocery had been hit and the front of the store had been destroyed.

“Mr. Delmar…” She muttered under her breath, and she ran towards the shop in a panic, “Mr. Delmar! Are you in here? Is anybody in here?! Hello?!” She called out, leaping over the debris and counter, fearing the worst. Thankfully, he was on the ground, conscious, but coughing, with Murph meowing around him. She grabbed him and pulled his arm over his shoulder, and took Murph under her arm and carried them both out of the store to safety.

She looked back at the bank and saw that the robbers were gone.

“Aw, c’mon.” She moaned. She couldn’t believe after all this, they escaped. They were still out there somewhere, with weapons too dangerous for her to believe. She handed Murph back to Mr. Delmar and made sure he was alright before she swung out of the scene. She heard the sirens, so she knew the police and firemen would take it from here.

She had to call Happy. This was definitely an emergency. She called him as she ran across the rooftops back towards home. Luckily, he picked up this time.

“Happy, the craziest thing just happened to me! These guys were robbing this ATM with these high-tech weapons-”

“Hey, hey, take a breath, okay? I don’t have time for ATM robberies-”

“Yeah, but-”

“I have moving day to worry about. Everything’s gotta be out of here by next week.” Happy said, which threw her off guard.

“Wait, wait, you’re moving? Who’s moving?” Petra asked.

“Yeah, don’t you watch the news?” Happy explained, “Tony sold Avengers Tower. We’re relocating to a new facility upstate, where hopefully the cell service is much worse.”

“But what about me?” Petra asked. If this was such a big change for the Avengers, why wasn’t she informed about this ahead of time? Avengers Tower was close by, but upstate? She’d have to arrange for a ride if she was going to get called in for an Avengers meeting, if they even had those.

“What _about_ you?” Happy said, which felt like a stab in Petra’s stomach. She had to stop at a light post and sit down.

“What if Mr. Stark needs me or something...or I don’t know, something big goes down? Look, can I please just talk to Mr. Stark?” She pleaded. She wanted to hear this from her actual mentor, not his messenger.

“Look, just stay away from anything too dangerous. I’m responsible for making sure you’re responsible, okay? And we are going to need to have a serious talk about this Instagram you started, Missy.”

“What? I haven’t posted anything super secret. I’m not going to put the Berlin photos on there if that’s what you’re worried about!” She argued as she kept making her way to where she left her bag.

“Just don’t be doing dangerous stuff for Likes, you hear me?” Happy said sternly.

“I’m not! How did you even find out about that so quickly? I just made it this afternoon, it only has, like, 15 followers.” She said.

“New flash, sweetheart. It’s up to 1500 and counting.” He said.

“Really?” She said and kept the call online while checking her account at the same time to see that he was right. “Oh, crap!”

She looked at the spot where she left her backpack and saw that the whole dumpster she webbed it to had been carried off.

“Oh, crap…” She groaned, “My backpack’s gone.”

“That doesn’t sound very responsible.” He responded.

“I’ll call you back.” Petra said, still wanting to give him the details on the weapons the robbers had.

“Feel free not to.” Happy responded before he hung up.

Petra dropped her arms down and groaned loudly to the night sky. She didn’t catch the perps, Mr. Stark and Happy were blowing her off, and now her stuff was gone. Her textbooks and homework were online, but her laptop was in there for Pete’s sake! Now she was going to have to buy a new one secondhand and say goodbye to her birthday money. At least with her Instagram taking off, maybe she’d get sponsors and stuff to pay for things in the future.

She made it to the outside of her apartment and saw Aunt May cooking in the kitchen from her doorway through her window. She slowly slid it open and crawled in across the ceiling, quietly shutting the window from behind with her foot. She pulled off her mask and dropped it on the floor. She crawled on the tip of her toes and fingers to her door and quietly pushed it closed. Once she thought it was safe, she dropped down, and exhaled in relief. She pushed the spider logo on her chest to loosen the suit and let it fall off her body.

When she turned around, however, she saw Ned sitting on her bed, holding his Lego Death Star with his jaw dropped. By instinct, she screeched and covered herself as she slapped him to tomorrow. The Death Star fell out of his hands and onto the floor, breaking into its original pieces.

“What was that?” Aunt May called out from the kitchen.

“Nothing!” Petra said in a high voice, “Just a bug got into my room!”

Ned stood up, ignoring his reddened cheek and said quietly, pointing at her, “You’re the Spider-Man...from Youtube…”

“I’m not!” She said as she grabbed a real shirt from off her bed and threw it on. She shoved his hand away, “Don’t _look_!”

“You were on the ceiling.” Ned whispered loudly.

“No, I wasn’t!” She said hopelessly and grabbed a pair of jeans and tried to jump into them quickly, “Ned, what are you doing in my room?!”

“May let me in, you said we were gonna finish the Death Star!”

“You can’t just bust into my room!” She yelled, her cheeks red in fury and embarrassment. When the door clicked open behind her, she immediately jumped in front of Ned, but Aunt May saw her just as she was buttoning her pants.

“That turkey meatloaf recipe was a disaster!” Aunt May laughed as she waved away the smoke coming from the kitchen, “Let’s go to dinner. Thai? Ned, you want Thai?”

“No!” Petra said, a little too loudly, “He’s got a thing.”

“I got a thing to do after.” Ned went along.

“Okay…” May looked at the two of them suspiciously, “You guys be careful in here, okay?”

“Yeah, no, nothing to worry about.” Petra said, even more embarrassed.

As soon as May left, Ned whispered, “She doesn’t know?”

“Nobody knows!” She whispered loudly as she zipped up her fly, “Well, I mean Mr. Stark knows because he made my suit, but that’s it!”

“Tony Stark made you that?!” Ned asked in amazement, “Are you an Avenger?”

Putting her conversation with Happy out of her mind, she smiled and tilted her head, “Yeah, basically.”

Ned grabbed the bed for support like he was going to faint, “Seriously…”

“You can’t tell anybody about this. You gotta keep it a secret.” She got close to him and told him sternly.

“Secret? Why?” Ned asked.

“Guh-You know what she’s like! If she finds out that people are trying to kill me every single night, she’s not going to let me do this anymore! C’mon, Ned. Please.” She pleaded with him. She already knew he wasn’t the best with secrets after he blew her cover when she went to Flash’s party, but that was so long ago, she hoped he was better at it.

“Okay..okay okay okay okay…” Ned calmed down, “I’ll level with you. I don’t think I can keep this a secret. This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, Petra.”

Petra had to turn away to release her frustrations for a second before she got back in Ned’s face and gritted her teeth, “Ned. May _cannot_ know. I cannot do that to her right now. You know? I mean...everything that’s happened with her...Please…”

She looked at Ned with her desperate and sad eyes until he conceded.

“Okay.” He said quietly.

“Just swear it, okay?” She pleaded.  
“I swear.” He said genuinely.

“Thank you.” She sighed and then ran her hands through her hair as she walked away, “I can’t believe this is happening right now.”

“Can I try the suit on?” Ned asked.

“No.” She said as she grabbed her shoes from under the bed.

“How does it work? Is it magnets? How do you shoot the strings? How does it make you look like a man?” He overwhelmed her with questions.

She grabbed his shoulders to push him out of her room, “I’ll tell you about this at school tomorrow, okay?”

“Great.” He said as she opened the door for him, “Wait then...how do you do this _and_ the Stark Internship?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, “This _is_ the Stark Internship.”

He finally pieced together as she shoved him out the door. When she closed it behind him, she slid down the door and muffled a scream into her palms.


	9. Burning Questions

“What’s the matter? I thought you loved larb.” Aunt May asked when she noticed Petra was moving her food around without eating it, “Too larby? Not larby enough?”

Petra tapped her plate with her chopsticks. It was hard to eat with her nerves running haywire. Ned couldn’t even cover for her when she wanted to go to Flash’s party. How could she expect him to keep this secret? This was the best thing she had going for her, even if Happy was frustrating to deal with. She couldn’t risk losing this.

“How many times do I have to say ‘larb’ before you talk to me?” Aunt May got more pressing, “You know I larb you.”

“I’m just stressed from the internship, and I’m tired. Lotta work.” Petra said, keeping her eyes low.

“The Stark internship.” May bit her lip and shook her head, “I have to tell you, not a fan of that Tony Stark.”

That made Petra look up. What wasn’t there to like? Yeah, on the surface he look like a rich asshole, but he was a superhero. He saved people from terrorists and he stopped alien invasions. And then, he came to their apartment because he thought that she was special and wanted to train her. How could she not think he was cool?

“You’re distracted all the time. He’s got you in your head. Whatever it is you’re doing, you need to use your instincts. Remember that.” May told her.

Petra got distracted right after Aunt May told her she was distracted, but it was because the incident at the bank was on the news. They said how the colorful local crimestopper “The Spider-Man” stopped the heist, but a powerful blast was set off damaged Delmar’s, but luckily no one got hurt. However, they used the dumbest picture they could find of her when she was walking out of a port-a-potty with toilet paper on her foot! Seriously? So many people had taken pictures of her today, and that was the best they could find?

“If you spot something like that happening, you turn and you run the other way.” May said sternly.

“Yeah, yeah, of course!” Petra nodded with her. Aunt May had every right to be protective, of course, especially after the stunt she pulled that got Uncle Ben killed. Petra was lucky she let her have this internship at all, and that was only because she thought Petra was building new tech in a safe heavily guarded laboratory in Manhattan. If Aunt May found out what she was really doing, not only would she not get to be Spider-Man, she may not be allowed to leave the apartment ever again.

“Six blocks away from us!” May exclaimed.  
“I’m...I’m gonna need a new backpack.” Petra tried to break this news sooner rather than later.

May tapped her ears in disbelief, “What?”

“I need a new backpack.” Petra bit her lip. She’d run out of stuff to pawn for cash, so now she had to ask Aunt Mary for the money.

“That’s five.” Aunt May said, but was interrupted when the waiter brought a new dish to their table.

“Sticky rice pudding.” He told her.

“Oh, we didn’t order that.” May said.

“It’s on the house.” The waiter smiled and winked.

“Oh. Thanks.” Aunt May smiled back. She was so flattered she lost her train of thought. Petra owed him one for that, “That’s nice.”

“I think...he larbs you.” Petra smiled.

* * *

  
“You got bit by a spider? Can it bite me? It probably would hurt right? You know what? Whatever, even if it did hurt, I’d let it bite me, maybe. How much did it hurt?” Ned rambled on, not even offering to help Petra carry her load of books.

“The spider’s dead, Ned.” Petra told him. He genuinely looked disappointed to hear that. Then, they passed by what was left of Delmar’s, and they both came to a stop. The place was blocked off with yellow tape and barriers, and she could see the extent of the damage in the sunlight. There were cops and people in suits everywhere trying to gather evidence.

“Woah...you were here?” Ned asked.

“Yeah…” Petra said quietly.

“You could have died…” Ned said, pausing for a few moments, before he asked, “...Do you lay eggs?”

“What? No!” Petra said quickly in response.

Ned interrogated her all day at every chance he could.

“Can you spit venom?” He asked as she was filling out her lab sheet. She shook her head.

  
“Can you summon an army of spiders?”

“No, Ned.” She said in frustration. Not that he was catching on. Boys could be so dense.

He was even asking her questions during AP US History, when they were going over the Sokovia Accords, which were put into place after the tragedy in Sokovia. This, she was actually interested in, because she remembered that Cap and Iron Man mentioned it before they started fighting. Maybe today’s lesson could help her figure out what happened.

“How far can you shoot your webs?” Ned whispered as Petra was trying to listen.

“It’s unknown, shut up.” She whispered back.

As her teacher wrote the names of the Avengers who signed the Accords, she made a tally sheet in her notes of who signed it, and who didn’t. Sure enough, the heroes who did sign it were on the Iron Man side of the airport fight, and most of the heroes who didn’t were on Cap’s side. Still, that didn’t tell her what happened to them after the fight. She raised her hand eagerly until she was called on.

“So...what happened to the Avengers who didn’t sign the Accords?” She asked.

“Well, considering that the purpose of the Accords was to protect civilians from casualties caused by free-acting Avengers, any member who didn’t sign either had to retire or face legal action.” The teacher answered.

“Wait...so if they didn’t sign...it’s illegal for them to be an Avenger?” She continued.

“Well, these documents are still new, so the details haven’t been fleshed out yet, but I would say yes.” Her teacher answered.

Petra fell back in her seat. If that was the case, then at least half of the heroes she knew weren’t even allowed to _be_ on the team anymore! But when she asked Mr. Stark, he told her they were fine. Getting kicked off the team didn’t sound fine to her. Then, when she thought about it, she realized she hadn’t seen a public debut of the team since. Sure it had only been a couple months, but normally they’d have attended a charity event by now. She kept that in mind to ask Mr. Stark next time she had a chance.

Gym class just made both her and Ned more curious, because today was the fitness challenge, which meant a video from Captain America himself. Clearly, it was an older video since she hadn’t seen him wear that outfit since 2012.

“Do you know him, too?” Ned asked. Petra looked over to see if anyone was paying attention. Michelle was close by, but she was too focused on her book to hear them.

“Yeah, we met.” She told him, since she was finally excited to tell someone about it, “I stole his shield.”

The look on Ned’s face was priceless, enough to distract her from the Cap video where he gestures on the wrong side of the screen to introduce ‘his good friend’ the gym teacher. Cap sounded really awkward and forced in these videos now that she was actually paying attention. Still, she couldn’t see how this was the man who dropped a carriage belt over her head and blew off the Accords.

“Then he beat me up.” She told Ned the truth.

When the video was over, Coach Wilson finished off, “Thank you, Captain. Pretty sure this guy’s a war criminal now, but whatever. I have to show these videos, it’s required by the state, let’s do it.”

As the coach blew the whistle, Petra felt light-headed and stuck to her seat. Captain America? A _war criminal?_ Because of the Accords? That didn’t seem right at all. Cap was supposed to be the greatest hero who ever lived, and now they were just expected to drop all that can call him a criminal? At the airport, all she heard Cap say was that he wasn’t going to hand over Bucky, so how did that fit into this? And most of all, why didn’t Mr. Stark tell her any of this?

Ned had to pull her off of the bleachers to get to the plastic mats for sit-ups. Of course, it was only so he could bombard her with even more questions.

“Do Avengers have to pay taxes?” He asked, a little too loudly, so she shushed him, but he continued, “What does Hulk smell like? I bet he smells nice.”

“Shut up…” She whispered through gritted teeth.

“Is Captain America cool? Or is he like a mean old grandpa?”

“Ned, just _ssshh_ , okay?”

“Can I be your guy in the chair?” Ned asked.

“What?” Petra said as she pretended to struggle with her sit-ups, trying to hit her number from last year so that she didn’t invite suspicion.

“You know how there’s a guy, with a headset, telling the other guy where to go? Like if you were stuck in a burning building, I could tell you where to go because there would be screens around me and I could circle around them because I’d be your guy in the chair!” Ned said with excitement.

“Ned, I don’t need a guy in the chair.” She said, just as Coach Wilson passed by to tell her she was doing good. She took that as a note to slow it down, since puny Petra wasn’t supposed to be good.

“Now you see, for me it would be...F Thor, Marry Iron Man, and Kill Hulk.” Betty Brant said to Liz as they waited on the benches. Petra could hear them from where she was, and in her opinion, it was lame when girls left Black Widow and Scarlet Witch out of FMK. It was all hypothetical so why not make it more fun, especially if they were going to leave Hulk in anyway.

“Well, what about the Spider-Man?” A kid near them asked. Petra dropped flat on her back.

“It’s just Spider-Man, and did you guys see that big security cam on Youtube? He fought off four guys.” Liz said in amazement. Petra sat up and watched them intently.

“Oh my God, she’s crushing on Spider-Man.” Betty teased her. Petra’s heart fluttered in her chest.

“No way!”

“Kind of…” Liz admitted.

“Ugh, gross.” Betty said, “He’s probably like 30.”

“You don’t even know what he looks like. What if he’s like seriously burned?”

“I wouldn’t care. I would still love him for the person he is on the inside.” Liz said.

Petra could barely contain herself. Liz actually _liked_ Spider-Man! She liked _her!_ Then Petra’s excitement quickly turned to apprehension when she realized that Liz was still expecting an actual man out of Spider-Man. If she didn’t like girls...then it didn’t matter what she was on the inside. Plus, if Liz knew it was Petra, then that crush might die instantly and she’d be humiliated forever. Liz was nice to her, but she never got any vibes that she liked her or any girls at all. Now Petra felt stupid for getting excited in the first place. She figured she shouldn’t bring it up at all.

“Petra knows Spider-Man!” Ned shouted out, for the whole gym to hear, and everyone fell silent. If everyone wasn’t watching, she would web his mouth shut in that instant. Petra had no choice but to deal with this.

“Uh..uh, no, I don’t!” She stood up and looked at Liz, “I...I mean…”

“They’re friends.” Ned announced. Now she wanted to just strangle him. Especially after her “favorite” person jumped down from the climbing rope.

“Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends.” Flash taunted her, which made people laugh. Liz still looked intrigued, though

“I-I’ve met him a couple times, but it’s through the...Stark internship.” She explained, glaring back at Ned, “Yeah, but I’m not really supposed to talk about it.”

“Oh give me a break, Parker. First you said you know Iron Man, and now you’re saying you know Spider-Man, too? Why should anyone believe that?” Flash got closer to her, which made her nervous.

“I...I...You don’t have to believe me if you don’t-” Petra backed away a bit as she stuttered.

“Who are you trying to impress anyway? You think pretending to be friends with cool people will actually _make_ you cool? That’s just sad.” Flash continued moving towards her, sounding angry with her.

“I’m not pretending.” Petra stopped and held her ground, with her fists balled up.

“Flash, that’s enough.” Liz tried to step in, but he ignored her.

“What’s the matter, Penis Parker? Didn’t get enough attention at my party before you ruined it? Maybe that’s why Liz didn’t invite you to hers tonight. Plus, she doesn’t want a mess in the bathroom when you-”

Petra shoved her hands into Flash’s chest and pushed him. Hard. Harder than a normal girl would. Flash flew back so far, he hit the third row on the bleachers, and everyone gasped and “ooo”ed before they fell silent again. Petra’s eyes widened, surprised with herself. She looked at Liz and saw she was covering her mouth in shock. Petra looked around and saw everyone’s eyes on her and felt tears in hers. Her breath left her chest, and she turned and ran out of the gym seconds before the bell rang.


	10. The Party

Petra grabbed her clothes from the gym locker room and ran out before the crowd of kids entered. She stormed off to the girls’ bathroom to change back into her school clothes in peace. She dragged her hand down her tear-covered face as she thought about what she did. She knew she had to be careful with her powers, but what Flash said just made her snap. She told herself she wasn’t going to let that stupid rumor get to her, but it seeped into her brain, reaching into the dark crevices and pooling into her psyche.

She considered going to a teacher about it, but she knew what would follow. The counselor would put them in a room together and force them to talk it out. Some good that would do. She took a few deep breaths as she finished changing, and put the worry away before she left the bathroom. This kind of thing was a Petra problem. She had Spider-Man problems to think about now, and that included figuring out what happened to the Avengers that Iron Man hadn’t told her yet.

As soon as she entered the hallway, she saw Liz standing against the lockers, which brought her tennis shoes to a squeaking halt.

“Hey, I-I was just on my way to-” Petra tried to seem cool, liking nothing had just happened last period, but Liz wasn’t letting her go.

“I know, I just really need to tell you how sorry I am about what happened back there.” Liz said sweetly.

“No, no you didn’t do anything, it’s fine.” Petra waved it off, but Liz insisted.

“No, it’s not fine. I know what he said really hurt you, and honestly, I don’t even blame you for lashing out like that. He deserved it.” Liz said.

Petra blew air and scratched the back of her neck, “So I guess I’m in trouble with Coach Wilson, right?”

“Actually…” Liz swayed, “Coach Wilson didn’t see it, so as far as he’s concerned, it didn’t happen.”

“Well, that’s a relief, for once.” Petra shuffled her feet, “So what’s everyone else saying? Just out of curiosity.”

Liz rolled her eyes, “They’re just being stupid, just saying how it’s the tiny ones you need watch out for.”

“Haha, that’s funny.” Petra tried to walk away, but Liz grabbed her arm.

“Hey… I just want you to know...I really am having people over tonight, and you’re more than welcome to come...if you’re not too busy.” Liz said.

Petra blushed and looked back at her. After the slumber party, she thought Liz never wanted to invite her over again! Now she was giving her another chance, and Petra wasn’t going to mess it up this time.

“Cool!” Petra said a little too loudly, so she coughed and took it down a notch, “Cool, I’ll be there.”

At their next period, Ned tried to apologize for bringing up Spider-Man in gym class. Petra grabbed his sleeve,

“That’s not important now. Liz invited me to her party, and I’ve gotta impress her. What should I do?”

“Dude, you should…” Ned looked around before getting closer to her ear to whisper, “You should totally make Spider-Man show up.”

“What? But she invited me, not him.” Petra whispered back.

“Yeah, so you can surprise her, impress her, and prove to everybody that you really do know Spider-Man and then Flash can eat it.” Ned said.

When Ned put it that way, the idea got a lot more tempting. However, Mr. Stark didn’t give her the suit for her to show off to her friends. But then again, he used his Iron Man suits at parties all the time, so surely he’d understand.

Figuring out what to wear for the party was tricky. She said she was just having some people over, so maybe she’d get away with a shirt and jeans. It would mean she could wear the suit underneath her clothes, too. However, she didn’t want to underdress, that would be embarrassing! She shivered as she got flashbacks of what she wore to Flash’s party. Never would she be so bold again as to show up in a midriff.

Then, she realized she could reach out and ask what they were wearing to the party. It would be weird to ask the hostess herself what she was wearing, so she texted Michelle.

_“Hey, u going to Liz’s party tonight?”_ Petra texted. She saw the three typing dots waver in and out off the screen. Uh oh, what if she hadn’t been invited? Was MJ typing out some hurt reply to thank her for rubbing salt in it? No, Liz would have invited her. She was so nice, she totally must have invited the whole Decathlon team. Finally, her phone pinged when Michelle texted back.

_“Yeah”_

  
_“Cool. What are you gonna wear?”_ Petra felt relieved as all that worry disappeared in a moment.

_“Idk”_

Well, that was helpful. Petra didn’t need to know the exact outfit, she just needed an idea for one. So she texted back,

_“I mean like, are you going to wear a normal shirt, or a dress?”_

_“Idk. Either sounds good.”_

Petra dropped her face into her bed. It looked like she would have to be more direct.

_“What should I wear?”_ She asked.

_“Whatever you want.”_

At first, Petra was frustrated at how unhelpful that sounded, but then she realized she meant that she shouldn’t worry about it so much. Michelle really was cooler about these things. So Petra decided to wear a black mesh shirt over a black camisole with some summer shorts. She wrapped her suit in a towel and placed it in a beach bag with her swimsuit.

Aunt May picked up Ned before driving them both to Liz’s house. On the way there, she kept her bag squeezed between her legs. The closer they got, the more nervous Petra became. She remembered how embarrassed she felt that she couldn’t keep herself from crying in Liz’s bathroom. At first, the other girls didn’t acknowledge that she was gone and continued with their game of Truth or Dare, talking and laughing over stories of their first kisses and revealing who they had crushes on. Then, a couple girls noticed Petra was gone and asked if she was okay, goading her to come out. She couldn’t do open the door, or say anything. She froze. Then Liz got concerned and came over, knocking and asking if she needed help when it became obvious she was crying. Still, Petra couldn’t answer.

“Aw, house party in the suburbs! I remember these. Kinda jealous.” Aunt May said as she stopped the car in front of Liz’s house.

“It’ll be a night to remember.” Ned said, tongue in cheek.

“Ned, some hats wear men. You wear that hat.” Aunt May complimented him on his fedora.

“Yeah, it gives me confidence.” Ned said.

“This was a mistake…” Petra muttered, “Hey, let’s just go home.”

“Oh Petra...I know. I know it’s really hard for you, after everything. But hey, you don’t have to keep punishing yourself. You deserve to go out and have fun, too. Just be safe, okay? And if in 30 minutes you don’t feel comfortable, it’s okay. Call me, and I’ll come right back.” Aunt May tried to comfort her.

“Mhm...Okay…” Petra mumbled. She was so excited for this just hours ago. Why did her overthinking have to ruin everything? When she was Spider-Man, analyzing the whole situation was part of the thrill of being a superhero, but in her normal life it just made her too scared to actually live.

“She’s been so stressed out lately.” Aunt May explained to Ned.

“You know what helps with stress is going to a party, and we should go to the party.” Ned said.

“Yeah, let’s do it. I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go…” Petra unbuckled and pushed herself out the door with her beach bag in hand. Ned followed after her and waved goodbye to Aunt May.

“Dude, you got the suit, right?” Ned asked close to her. She lifted up her bag in response.

“This is gonna change our lives!” Ned got excited. Petra bit her lip. Yeah, Ned had only found out yesterday that she was Spider-Man, and she knew it was exciting, but that’s the only think he’d talked about all day. She wanted to give him credit for being a cool friend before he knew the truth, but what if from now on, he could only see her as Spider-Man? She didn’t know if she could take it.

When they entered Liz’s house, she looked around and barely recognized the living room. It looked like the place had been seriously remodeled into something fancier in the two years since she’d been there. The place was decorated with lights, and the electronic music blared all over. When she saw Flash as the DJ, she rolled her eyes. At least this mean he would stay behind the booth tonight.

“Okay,” Ned grabbed her shoulder and started planning, “We’re going to have Spider-Man swing in, say you guys are tight, and then I get a fist bump or one of those half bro-hugs.”

“I can’t believe you guys actually showed up to this lame party.” Michelle said, as she buttered some toast on the kitchen counter. Petra doubted Liz put out toast as a party snack, which meant that Michelle just grabbed bread from Liz’s cupboard and made herself some toast. Also when Michelle said either a dress or a shirt was good, Petra didn’t expect that to mean she would be wearing both. And yet, here she was, wearing a cute rose-colored ruffled dress over a tight black t-shirt, and rocking it.

“You’re here, too.” Ned pointed out.

Michelle bit her toast and walked away, “Am I?”

“Oh my gosh! Hey guys!” Liz walked over and greeted them as soon as she noticed them, “Cool hat, Ned.”

“Hey Liz.” Ned said back and looked at Petra to do the same.

“Hey Liz.” Petra said in a high voice.

“I’m so glad you guys came.” Liz said sweetly, wearing a light colored blouse, “There’s pizza and drinks. Help yourself.”

“What a great party.” Petra managed to say.

“Thanks.” Liz smiled, but her attention was drawn away by the sound of a breaking noise, “Oh, my parents will kill me if anything’s broken, so…”

“Yeah.” Petra nodded. Liz said bye and left to attend to the noise.

Ned whispered loudly, “What are you doing? She’s here, Spider it up!”

“No, no no no, I can- I cannot do this.” Petra asserted herself, “Spider-Man is not a party trick, okay? Look I’m just gonna...be myself.”

“Petra…” Ned sighed, “No one wants that.”

Petra felt a knife go through her chest. No, not from him. That was the last thing she needed to hear from him. Her eyes welled up, but she could still see on Ned’s face that he knew he messed up.

“Wait, that’s not what I-” Ned tried to take it back, but it was too late.

“Shut up, just SHUT UP, Ned!” Petra yelled, “You know what, that hat is not cool! Everyone knows fedoras are stupid hats for neckbeards who no one likes!”

She grabbed her bag and tried to storm off to the backyard, but her outburst caught the attention of the wrong person.

“Uh oh! Penis Parker, what is up!” Flash called out over the microphone, putting everyone’s attention on her, “So where’s your boyfriend Spider-Man? Let me guess, with your sugar daddy Iron Man?”

The crowd laughed, and to be extra annoying, he added airhorn noises for effect. Her fuming was about to consume her. If he needed a refresher on his lesson from gym today, she’d be happy to give it to him.

“That’s not Spider-Man. That’s just Ned in a red shirt.”

She squeezed her beach bag and ran out the door. If he didn’t take a hint from a heavy shove from Petra, then maybe he needed to learn some manners from Spider-Man himself. She ran and leaped on the roof of the house next door so she could change in private. She told herself that it wasn’t a party trick if she was using it to dish out some payback. She wasn’t going to put him in the hospital or anything. Just hoist him in the air for a bit to give him a scare. Defend her own honor. And she might as well get Ned while she was at it. Show them both that dissing her came with consequences now.

“Hey, what’s up, I’m Spider-Man. I heard you were talking shit about my girl, Petra.” She practiced what she was going to say as she put the suit on, “What, you think she’s not cool enough to know a guy like me? I’ll tell you what, _I’m_ not cool enough to know a girl like _her_. I got powers, but Petra...she’s got everything. Smarts, looks, talents, enough to impress Tony Stark all...all on her own.”

As she listened to herself, the fire in her chest cooled and she plopped down on the edge of the roof. She realized how petty and stupid the whole thing sounded. Spider-Man was supposed to be a hero who she could be proud to be. Mr. Stark didn’t trust her with this suit so she could use it for revenge.

“God, this is stupid…” She whispered to herself, “What am I doing?”

She looked down at the party and saw Ned, scrambling around, calling her name, actually looking for her. She sighed. Ned could be an idiot sometimes, but he was still her best friend. She couldn’t let one day of him being stupid ruin all of that.

Suddenly, she heard an explosion and saw a blue flame in the distance. She stood up and focused on it until it sputtered out.

“What the hell?” She muttered.

It looked like the suit would come in handy after all. She put on the mask and ran off swinging towards it.


	11. Dropping

It was more difficult to swing from trees in the suburbs than it was to swing from buildings, but Petra was able to handle it until she hit the golf course. No forest, just wide flat space. She groaned and made a break for it, dashing across the open grass as the sprinklers came on.

“This sucks.” She muttered to herself as she kept running until she was out of breath. She had to keep in mind to work out her cardio instead of just relying on the powers. When she heard another explosion close by, she knew that she was almost there. She finally saw some men standing under a bridge, with an open van filled with gadgets. She crawled along the concrete, peeking her head below close enough to hear them.

“I got tons of great stuff here. One sec…” a man in a beanie and jacket looked through the contents of the van, “Black hole grenades...Chitauri rail guns…”

“You letting off shots in public now? Hurry up.” Another man in a blue jacket talked to what looked like a prospective customer, “Look, times are changing and we’re the only one selling these hi-tech weapons.”

Petra gasp and whispered to herself as her goggles closed in on them, “This must be where the ATM robbers got their stuff. “

“Look, I just need something to stick up somebody, I’m not trying to...shoot them back in time.” The customer said.

“I got anti-grav climbers…”

“Climbers?” Now the guy sounded interested.

Suddenly, Petra’s personalized ringtone for Ned went off in her secret side pocket. Her heart raced as she quickly tried to decline the call, but the men below heard it and pulled a gun on the customer, thinking he had set them up. She acted on her feet and jumped down to get their attention.

“Hey! Hey, c’mon, if you’re going to shoot at somebody, shoot at me!” She said nervously, trying to remember if this suit was bulletproof or not.

“Aight.” The guy in the blue jacket turned his gun on her, but she webbed it out of his hands in a split second.

She charged towards the guy in the beanie close to the van, but he pulled out a giant electrified brace and punched her before she could see it. She flew back into the support beam for the bridge, taking a serious hit that made her head fuzzy.

“Ugh, what was that…” She groaned as she heard the van start up and try to escape. She webbed the bottom of the vehicle to try and stop it, but as it sped away, it carried her along for the ride, dragging her along the dirt.

When they turned the corner, she skid and ran into a garbage can, but still held on tightly. She tried to shoot another web to give her support to stand up, but the beanie guy was shooting at her with purple energy rays.

“Ow, my butt!” She hissed as she slid along the rough concrete, the friction heating up from under her. She dove and ducked as the guy kept shooting at her until the blast snapped one of her webs. Luckily, a bump in the road caused him to lose his weapon as it rolled off into the grass. However, the driver kept turning to run her into other cars and trash bins until he finally knocked her off by leading her into a brick standing mailbox.

At least now now she could stand, but as she tried to web the van again, it only caught on the back door and pulled it off the hinges.

“Great! Guess I’m gonna have to take a shortcut.” She told herself as she jumped the fence on the house in front of her and ran through the yard. She saw a couple of guys playing ping pong in the garage, so just to let them know she wasn’t intruding to break in, she gave them a quick and friendly, “Hey guys. Good game. Have fun.”

When a dog ran up to her, she couldn’t resist. She stopped for a brief moment to pet its head.

“Hey buddy.” She ruffled his fur and webbed his ball to toss it, “Sorry, no time to play, go fetch!”

She finally had space to web the trees and swing again, and she exclaimed, “Woo! Now this is more like it!”

However, what she thought was stable branch she caught turned out the be the corner of treehouse, which fell as she swung and threw off her balance, landing her in a shed filled with rusty, web-covered tools. She kicked her way out of those and ran through a lattice fence when she couldn’t jump it. Now she was just running through backyard after backyard like an obstacle course.

“Smells really good!” She said to a guy who was barbecuing in his yard as she ran past him.

She swung through a pool party that was playing Mean Girls on the television outside.

“Great movie!” She exclaimed as she splashed through the water and caught on some yard lights on her way back up.

She rolled into the next yard, wrapped by the lights, into the grass. She looked to the side and saw a couple of little girls camping in a tent.

“Oh, hey guys.” She greeted, not realizing the eyes on her mask were glitching wildly. The girls screamed, which alarmed her into standing back up and making a run for it. Maybe she was overdoing it on the friendly tonight. Finally she found the van speeding along the road and chased it.

“Almost got ya.” She huffed as she ran across the rooftops along the block, “Thought you got away from me, didn’t ya? I got you right where I want ya. Surprise!”

She leaped out to catch the van from the front, but she didn’t land. Instead, she felt something catch her leg and yank her from behind. It carried her off into the air like a drone. As she screamed, she looked up and saw big metal wings, like the Falcon’s, but different.

“What the hell?!” She screamed as she tried to loosen her foot out of its grip, but it was wrapped around her like claws. It looked down on her with glowing green eyes as it carried her higher. She yelled louder, “Get off of me! Get OFF!”

She tried to climb on it, but the rush of the current blew her body back down. Suddenly, she heard a quick alarm, and she was pulled away once again. This time by a parachute that had activated from the back of her suit. Unfortunately, since she was on the wrong side of it, she was falling directly into the tarp which wrapped itself around her instead of catching the air and slowing her fall. Now she couldn’t see where she was falling, and she panicked. She tried to move the fabric out of her way, but then was caught off guard when she hit the water. Now the parachute was heavy as it got soaked, and it still clung to her, trapping her like a bag of kittens as she sank deeper. She couldn’t even scream as she lost oxygen and was slowly dripping out of consciousness.

Just when she was about to pass out, she felt the solid grip of metal wrap around her body and carry her out of the water, free of the parachute. She took a solid gasp for air, coughing until it hurt. She looked up and saw Iron Man carrying her in his arms as he flew towards land. She was so stunned that all she could say was a weak, “Hey.”

He dropped her down in a playground on top of the jungle gym, where she proceeded to explain to him what she saw as she wrung the lake water out of her mask.

“And then he just like, swooped down like a monster and h-he picked me up and took me up like a thousand feet and just dropped me!” She explained as she shivered, both excited and reeling over how she had almost drowned, “How’d you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?”

“I put everything in your suit.” Mr. Stark said as he floated above her, “Including this heater.”

  
“Woahh…” She awed as she felt the suit warm up and dry her body from the inside, and blew off steam, “Whew, that’s better. Thanks.”

“What were you thinking?” Mr. Stark asked in an accusatory tone.

This took her by surprise. She thought she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. So she explained, “The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons! I gotta take him down!”

“Take him down, now, huh?” Now he just sounded condescending, “Steady Crockett, there are people who handle this sort of thing.”

Petra looked at him and suddenly remembered all the things she wanted to ask him, but first, she was going to give him a chance to bring it up himself.

“The Avengers?” She suggested, hoping for an explanation of what happened to them after she left Berlin.

“No, no, no. This is a little below their pay grade.” He said, as his mask looked off and pointed to something.

“What are you looking at?” She asked.

“Oh...I’m not actually...here.” He explained as the mask to the suit lifted up to reveal it was empty, “Thank God this place has Wifi or you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you’re at it. Look forget the flying Vulture guy, please.”

“Why?!” She asked indignantly. He brushed off the Avengers topic and now he was flat out telling her to ignore a threat she saw with her own eyes.

“Why? Because I said so!” He scolded her, and then turned to whoever he was close to to explain, “Sorry, I was talking to a teenager.”

She jutted out her jaw. She thought Mr. Stark would take her seriously, but it wasn’t easier talking to him than talking to Happy.

His voice got softer as he told her, “Stay close to the ground. Build up your game helping the little people. Do your Instagram thing, like with that lady that bought you the churro. Can’t you just be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?”

“But I’m ready for more than that now!” She argued. She spent the last two months helping the little people, and now this was her shot to get to the next level. She wasn’t going to miss this shot to prove to him that she was ready.

  
His mask shut back on his helmet, “No, you’re not.”

“That is _not_ what you thought when I took on Captain America!” She exclaimed, “Who by the way is apparently a _war criminal_ now?!”

“I told you he went a little crazy, and now he’s paying the price for it.” Iron Man said.

“But why? Bucky didn’t blow up the UN after all.” She explained what she saw on the news, “It was that Zemo guy! So it should be all good right?”

“It’s more complicated than that, kid…” Iron Man replied.

“And what about the Avengers who were on his side? I was there, that was like HALF the team! Are they war criminals now, too?” She asked loudly.

“Look, I legally cannot hash out the details to you right now, but I’m telling you now, you don’t have to worry about that.” He deflected again.

“And when were you going to tell me you were moving?” Petra argued, “If I’m in training to be an Avenger, I should know these things.”

“Listen to me right now, okay?” Iron Man got more demanding, “All will be explained in due time. In the meantime, if you come across these weapons again, call Happy.”

“I tried to, but Happy hates me!” She threw her hands down into her lap.

“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just a little stern, sometimes, but he is listening.” He said, but then the rumble of an engine came on his speakers.

“Are you _driving?_ ” She asked.

“Look, it’s never too early to start thinking about college. I got some pull at MIT. End call.”

“But Mr. Stark! I still have questions about the Av-”

_“Mr. Stark is no longer connected.”_ A robotic AI voice said in his place as the suit took off into the sky.

“That is awesome.” She shook her head and leaped off the jungle gym in a huff rambling to herself as she walked away, “That is just perfect. Two months without a word and that’s all he had to tell me. Stay close to the ground? What is he talking about? From what I see these weapons are on the-”

She spotted a small purple glow encased in metal on the grass, “...ground.”

She slowly approached it and realized it was the weapon that the guy had lost earlier during the chase.

“Woah…” She mused as she slowly turned it over, revealing source of the glow, a purple stone that was working as a power source. From the names of the weapons earlier, it sounded like alien tech from past Avengers battles, but she couldn’t be sure until she checked it out for herself.

Then, her phone rang again, another call from Ned who had been trying to catch her all night, and he even left 5 messages already. Sheesh, because that wasn’t creepy. She hoped he was trying to apologize instead of just begging her to let Spider-Man make an appearance at the party.

“Hello, you’ve reached the Spider-Man hotline.” She said sarcastically as she answered.

“Ugh, Petra, you know I didn’t mean what I said earlier…” Ned said.

“I’m sorry, Petra is unavailable to take your call right now. Please leave a message.” She said.

“I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry. I messed up and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you. I’ll lay down my life for you if I have to.” Ned said, sounding more desperate.

Petra broke into a giggle, “C’mon, you know I’m just messing with you. I’m on my way back right now.”

“Actually...I don’t think coming back is the best idea. Can you just call your aunt to pick us up?” Ned asked.

“Why?” Petra asked as she picked up the discarded weapon and walked along the road in her suit.

“I sort of...got kicked out of the party.” Ned said.

“What? What happened?” She asked in confusion.

“Well, Flash tried to get everyone to chant ‘Penis Parker’ so I sort of...poured punch on his laptop and jumped him.” Ned explained.

“You what?” She stopped walking, “You didn’t!”

“I did actually.” Ned chuckled.

“Wow, Ned...I am so sorry I called you a neckbeard.” Petra smiled, “Thanks, man. Really.”

“Well, as a true gentleman, I will always defend your honor...M’lady.” Ned said, making Petra laugh.

“Aw man, was Liz upset?” Petra asked through her laughter.

“A little, but she knew Flash was being a jerk, so she didn’t throw me out too hard.” Ned said, “Oh...and one more thing. There might be a new rumor about you…”

Petra threw her head back and groaned, “Ugh, what is it this time, Ned?”

“Well...everyone saw us fight at the party and then saw me beat up Flash, so...now everyone saying you’re my girlfriend...including Liz.”

Petra released a shrill ear-splitting scream into the night.


	12. Tracking Every Move

Petra took the bad guy’s gauntlet to school with her the next day to examine it during shop class. The first thing she did was take a picture of it to send a warning over Instagram.

_“Hey, this is a special message from your good pal Spider-Man. Came across this last night. If you’re walking around at night, BE CAREFUL of any suspicious people you see carrying around glowing weapons like these, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE report it to the police immediately. These guys are super dangerous, so DO NOT engage them. Stay safe everybody.”_

After making the post, Petra grabbed a hammer and starting whacking the casing for the glowing purple thing inside the gadget. This metal was tough stuff and took a few good hits to break off. She heard Ned’s footsteps from behind her and looked over her shoulder.

“Hey _boyfriend_ , ya miss me last night?” Petra teased him in a high voice.

“Ugh, you wish.” Ned walked over to her table, “Where did you even go?”

“Something came up.” Petra gestured to the gadget.

Ned looked down and widened his eyes, “Woah, what is that?”

“I don’t know.” Petra tried to jiggle the purple part out with a screwdriver, “Some guy tried to vaporize me with it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Petra pulled away the small pieces that chipped away.

“Awesome.” Ned said. Petra looked at him harshly. He changed his words, “I mean...not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary.”

Now he was just overdoing it. Petra went back to her work, “Well, I think it’s a power source.”

“Yeah, but it’s connected to all these microprocessors. That’s an inductive charging plate.” Ned pointed to it, “That’s what I use to charge my toothbrush.”

“Whoever is using these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours.” Petra said matter-of-factly. She heard the bad guys say the word Chitauri enough to know that they were branding these weapons as alien tech, and now she could see that they were telling the truth.

“That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said.” Ned said, awestruck, “I just want to thank you...for letting me a part of your journey...Into this amaz-”

Petra took one more big swing with the hammer and knocked the purple power source right out of the gauntlet, which popped out with a loud thunking noise. She looked around to see if anyone was paying attention.

“Keep your fingers clear of the blades.” Her teacher warned them as he looked up only briefly from his puzzle book.

Petra huddled with Ned at their table as they looked down at the small and smooth glowing rock, “We gotta figure out what this thing is and who makes it.”

“We’ll go to the lab after class and run some tests.” Ned agreed with her, and prompted their special handshake. It felt good to have a teammate with her on this. Mr. Stark would probably take it out of her hands and not let her doing anything with it.

After class, Ned had some suggestions.

“First, I say we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer.” He said.

“First, we gotta come up with a better name than _glowy thing_.” She said.

“You’re right.” Ned conceded.

Suddenly, Petra eyed the guys from the other night coming down the hallway right in front of her.

“Crap!” She hissed as she instinctively jumped and hid behind the wall, and whispered for Ned to come with her. He just looked around trying to be inconspicuous before joining her. She peeked around the corner for another quick glance before going back to hiding.

“That’s one of the guys who tried to kill me.” She whispered.

“...What?” Ned whispered loudly.

“Yeah…”

“We gotta get out of here!” Ned exclaimed quietly, tapping her arm as she looked back at the guys.

“No, no...We gotta follow them. Maybe they can lead me to the guy who dropped me in the lake.” Petra made a new plan.

“Someone dropped you in a lake?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, it was _not_ good.” Petra watched them enter the shop classroom and slowly crept to follow them.

“Petra.” Ned tried to get her to stop, but she brushed him off. He couldn’t keep her away from this. She hopped quietly along the tile and jumped back into the classroom. The guys had brought some sort of geiger counter and were following a trail.

“Man, can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?” One guy asked.

The one she recognized said, “It’s saying there was an energy pulse right here.”

“There’s no sign of the weapon, and even if it was here, now it’s gone.”

“So are we.”

Before the guys turned around, Petra stuck herself to the underside of the table. She heard their footsteps creep forward, and she kept her finger on her webslinger just in case. Then their footsteps stopped, and her heart raced in her chest. Thankfully, they continued forward and headed back up the stairs. She quickly activated her tracker webs and shot out a small mechanical spider-tracker that crawled up the boots of one of the bad guys. As soon as they left, she released herself back on the ground, panting. That was intense, but she knew it was just the beginning of her investigation.

After school, she and Ned rushed back to her apartment, but before they could get to work, Aunt May stopped them.

“Hey, what are you two up to?” Aunt May asked casually, but Petra could hear in her voice that she knew something.

“Um...We were just going to a school project.” Petra shrugged, realizing she was holding onto Ned’s arm and let go.

“Really? You seem a little excited for just a school project.” Aunt May crossed her arms suspiciously.

“It’s a...really cool project...May, what are you talking about?” She scoffed, like she was being grilled unjustly.

“Word on the street is that you two are a thing now.” May bit her lip in a sly smile.

“What? No.” Petra waved her arms, “Who told you that?”

“It’s totally just a rumor.” Ned said in conjunction with her.

“Ned and I are just friends.” Petra insisted.

“I would never date Petra, ever.” Ned blurt out. Petra slapped his chest.

“Mhm, well whatever your current relationship status is, I’m putting in a new rule. No closed doors when you have a boy over.” Aunt May said.

“What?! That’s not fair!” Petra argued, “It’s _Ned._ We’re not going to do anything...ugh, gross! See, I can’t even think about that!”

“It’s completely fair, okay? Most moms enforce the same rule, I read about it.” May said.

“Aunt May, please, we need privacy for this project, okay? It’s like...really loud, and it’s just gonna bother you, and-”

“No excuses. If I see that door closed, I’m coming in any way I have to.” May got suddenly firm.

“What did I even do?” Petra whined, “Why are you punishing me like this?”

“You’re gonna be 16 soon, that’s why. This is not an unreasonable rule, and I don’t want to hear any more yap about it, alright?”

“...Fine.” She pouted and dragged both her backpack and Ned to her room, leaving it cracked open just barely. She turned around and pressed her finger to her lips to remind Ned to keep everything from then on out as quiet as possible.

She pulled out her wristcuff from her suit and showed Ned the holographic layout of the map for the tracker.

“This is so awesome.” Ned whispered as watched the tracker move past the holographic buildings.

“I know, right?” Petra gloated as she sat across her bed.

Ned tapped the hologram to expand the display and the information provided.

“They’re in Brooklyn.” She noted.

Throughout the evening, they got snacks as they watched the moving location, pretending to do homework whenever they heard Aunt May pass by the room. The tracker went from Staten Island, to Jersey, until it finally came to a stop in Maryland.

“What’s there?” Ned asked.

“I don’t know,” Petra shrugged, “Evil lair?”

“They have a lair?”

“Dude, a gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a liar.”

“Badass.” Ned nodded, “But how are you going to get there if it’s like 300 miles away?”

Petra looked at her Decathlon Nationals poster she’d set up as a reminder for when she was still on the team. Hopefully it wasn’t too late to rejoin.

“It’s not too far from D.C.”


	13. Lie By Omission

Petra was prepared to sweet talk Mr. Harrington into letting her back on the team, so she wore her cute bunny knee socks and her Erlenmeyer flask earrings when she went to school early the next day to catch the bus to D.C. She was relieved to see everyone lined up outside the bus when she ran over to them.

“Hey guys, so good news. I had some adjustments to my schedule, and now I’m free to go to Nationals!” She clasped her hands as she smiled, “So will you guys take me back? Please?”

“No, no way.” Flash asserted himself forward, “You can’t just quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone.”

“Hey! Welcome back, Petra.” Mr. Harrington walked off the bus, looking relieved actually, “Glad you could make it. Flash, you’re back to first alternate.”

“What?” Flash said dumbfounded.

“She’s taking your place.” Abe said, which made everyone laugh.

“Excuse me, can we go already? Because I was hoping to get some light protesting at one of the embassies before dinner.” Michelle asked, which made Petra chuckle.

“Protesting is patriotic. Let’s get on the bus.” Mr. Harrington said. That was a lot easier that Petra thought it would be. She almost felt bad for Flash as he pulled his gold blazer off and tossed it to her, but then she remembered literally everything he said to her ever and she didn’t feel bad anymore.

They practiced all the way to the competition. Academic Decathlon, by its name, had ten components. Seven tests: Math, Art, Music, Language and Literature, Economics, Science, and Social Science. Three freeform components: Essay, Speech, and Interview. All of these components were based around a theme, which this year was India. To say it took a lot of studying was an understatement.

Everyone’s scores were kept confidential until announcing the top rankings, but the big show of it all was Super Quiz. That was when a member of each team would get up on stage and answer 5 questions publically, like a game show, and then move on to the next teammate. Even though the winning team was based on a cumulative score, the pressure was on when it was your time to shine. If you got all five right, you were a super star. If you got three or four right, you were still pretty good. If you got one or two right, you could pat yourself on the back. Getting none right was just an academic disgrace. You might as well ride the bus home with a bag on your head.

Petra was afraid she was getting a little rusty and would get goose egged on stage, but then Liz asked a question that she knew Petra would get.

  
“What are the three heaviest alkaline earth metals, from lightest to heaviest?”

Petra gasped and rang her bell, “Um...Strontium, Barium, Vibranium!”

“Very good, Petra.” Liz looked at her, “Glad to have you back.”

Hearing that made Petra’s cheeks feel warm. She quietly muttered back, “Glad to be back.”

Then, her phone rang, and it was the last person she expected to be on the ringing side. Happy’s picture popped up on her phone, the one she took when he was napping on the plane.

“Sorry, can I take this real quick?” Petra asked Liz, embarrassed, “It’ll only take a sec.”

“Yeah, fine.” Liz sounded annoyed, and Petra knew it. She blushed hard as she shuffled towards the back of the bus.

“Hello?” Petra picked up, after letting it buzz a couple more times.

_“Got a blip on my screen here. You left New York?”_ Happy asked.

“If _that’s_ what it took to get your attention, I should have left months ago.” Petra said.

_“Watch it, kid. You’re on thin ice already. What’s happening?”_ Happy said.

“It’s just a school trip. It’s nothing.” Petra sat down behind Ned and looked at her fingernails, “Look, Happy, I gotta say, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy.”

Ned pointed to their tracker he was holding.

“That’s different.” Petra whispered to him as she unsuccessfully covered her phone.

_“What’s different?”_ Happy asked.

“Nothing. Look, it’s just the Academic Decathlon, it’s no big deal.” Petra insisted.

_“Hey,_ I’ll _decide if it’s no big deal...It sounds like it’s no big deal. But remember, I’m watching you.”_ Happy said. Geez, what crawled up his butt?

Once they got to D.C, they signed in at the selected hotel where they would be staying. Petra was supposed to be rooming with Michelle, but she needed to get Ned alone.

“Hey, you brought your laptop, right?” She asked Ned.

  
“Why?” He asked.

Petra shuffled over to Michelle, “Hey, do you want to just hang around out here for a little bit? Ned and I need the room to...have some...important things to talk about. It’ll only take a few minutes, I promise.”

Petra realized that every word of that made the implication stronger and more awkward than the ones before. But Michelle just shrugged, “Whatever.”

“Cool, you’re the best!” Petra cheered. As soon as she got her passcard, she pulled Ned up to her room and locked the door with the Do Not Disturb marker on the knob. She unpacked all her stuff, and unzipped her suit’s cover to reveal all the gears and circuits underneath. She attached the USB cord from the suit’s port to Ned’s laptop, and fired up the coding.

“Petra...why are we removing a tracker from your suit?” Ned asked.

Petra pulled the flashlight out of her mouth, “It’s highly unethical for an old man to track a teenage girl’s every move… and because I gotta follow these guys to their boss before they move again, and I don’t really want Mr. Stark to know about it.”

“So you’re lying to Iron Man now?” Ned asked, almost accusatory.

“No, no I’m not lying.” Petra snapped back, “He just doesn’t really get what I can do yet, and besides…” she continued as she spotted the tracking circuit, “...he’s been keeping secrets from me about what happened to the Avengers.”

“Something happened to the Avengers?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, I’ll show you the video about it later.” Petra pulled the metallic band off of her suit and stuck it to the closest thing nearby, “Gotcha. Alright Happy, enjoy tracking this lamp.”

“There’s a ton of other subsystems in here, but they’re all disabled by the...Training Wheels Protocol.” Ned snickered.

“What?” Petra jumped up on the bed with him to see the screen, “Training Wheels Protocol? Turn it off.”

“Uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, I mean, they’re probably blocked for a reason.” Ned said.

“Ugghh...c’mon!” Petra dragged herself off of that bed and leaped on the next one, “I don’t need training wheels! I’m sick of him treating me like a little girl all the time! That’s not cool. Spider-Man is supposed to be cool!”

“But Petra…” Ned said, “...You’re only 15.”

“Yeah, but I can stop a bus with my bare hands! Even Mr. Stark can’t do that without his suit!” Petra argued.

“Petra, I just don’t think this is a good idea. I mean, what if this is illegal?” Ned said.

“Ned _please_ ,” Petra jumped off the bed and kneeled by his side, begging, “This is my chance to prove myself. I can handle it! Ned...c’mon.”

“I really don’t think this is a good idea.” Ned repeated, but Petra begged more.

“Guy in the chair…” She whispered.

“Don’t do that.” Ned said, which showed her he was giving. So she pleaded more, shifting her shoulders around like an excited little kitten. Finally, he sighed and tapped a couple keys which made a wave of light travel through the suit’s circuits.

She squealed and hugged him before taking the suit into the bathroom to change, “Thanks so much, Ned! Also, the glowy thing is evidence so keep it safe. Oh, and tell Michelle she can come in now.”

She covered her suit with jeans and a hoodie, sneaking out before Michelle got back, but on the way out, she ran into Liz, who was wearing a cute checkered swimsuit.

“Hey...Liz…” She stopped and got distracted.

“Perfect timing.” Liz whispered as she tiptoed closer to her, “We’re going to go swimming.”

Liz gestured for the rest of the team to sneak past her, giggling and shushing each other on the way. Flash even smacked her ass as he passed her by.

“Flash!” Liz reprimanded him in a loud whisper.

Petra huffed in fury, but blew it off, “Don’t worry, I’ll get him for that later. But...I was just going to go study in the business center.”

“Petra, you don’t need to study. You’re, like, the smartest girl I’ve ever met.” Liz smiled at her, making Petra blush once again, “Besides, a rebellious group activity the day before a competition is good for morale.”

“...Hm.” Petra nodded. She hadn’t heard that one, but she was willing to believe Liz.

“Well, I read it in a TEDTalk, so… I heard it in a TEDTalk...and I read a coaching book.” She bit her lip.

“Are you really...This is really important to you.” Petra said, feeling guilty. She had really only been using this trip to do her Spider-Man thing, but now she saw that if she didn’t do her best tomorrow, she would really be letting Liz down. That was the last thing she wanted to do.

“Yeah, it’s our future. I’m not going to screw it up.” Liz explained, “Besides, we raided the minibar and these candy bars were like...eleven dollars. So get your suit on and c’mon!”

Liz threw the candy bar for her to catch before making her way to the pool. Petra went up to the roof as she initially planned, but watched the team below as they played in the pool. She even saw Michelle reading on one of the outer chairs. She thought about what Ned said, and what Liz said, and what she told Happy. She considered that maybe she should put the suit away and just be Petra for tonight. Maybe Petra’s life wasn’t that crappy after all.

But she couldn’t. Petra had a lead on the bad guys that Mr. Stark didn’t, and if she let this opportunity go now, Spider-Man might never get the chance to become more than Iron Man’s lackey. She tightened the straps on her backpack and put her mask on.

_“Good evening, Petra.”_ A feminine robotic voice greeted her.

“Hello? Hello?” She answered back, looking around defensively as she was spooked.

_“Congratulations on completing your rigorous Training Wheels Protocol and gaining access to your suits full capabilities.”_ The AI said as numerous controls and figures flashed through her goggles, blocking her view.

“Uh...Thank you?” Petra said cautiously.

_“So where would you like to take me tonight?”_ The suit said, in an almost flirty voice. Geez, Mr. Stark sure loved to give his tech personality. He might have overdone it, too, since Petra was about to blush from a talking suit.

“Um, I put a tracker on someone. He’s a bad guy.” She explained.

_“Tracker located. Plotting course to intercept target.”_

“Okay, well as long as I make in time for Decathlon, it’s fine!” Petra said to herself as she jumped from the roof and onto a passing truck selected by the suit. Looks like Mr. Stark was hiding more than just the Avengers from her.


	14. The Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: This chapter discusses sexual assault of a minor.

Petra held on to the car carrier until her suit told her to jump. She landed and rolled along the grassy side of the road just outside of a gas station. The suit also warned her of three individuals.

“Why is their secret lair in a gas station, that’s so lame.” Petra whispered. She was expecting at least a warehouse, or an abandoned factory. Those were cool.

Petra jumped onto the framing for the gas station sign and asked, “Hey suit lady, what are they doing?”

_“Do you want to hear what they’re saying?”_

“I can hear what they’re saying?” Petra said in disbelief, “Uh, yeah?”

_“Activating advanced reconnaissance mode.”_

The screen in her goggles focused in on the guys in the truck, showing their bodies through thermal detection and picking up on their conversation. One guy was talking about how the gauntlet he used was from the Lagos cleanup.

“Woah, that is so cool!” Petra admired as she listened in closely. They also mentioned the Triskelion mess. Chitauri, Ultron, Lagos, Triskelion...all of these were big fights that different Avengers were involved in. She heard one of them say that as long as they kept making messes, they would keep getting rich. So they were scavenging the tech from all the Avenger battles and then selling them. And then they got a message of an inbound target.

“Woah, they’re in the middle of a heist…I could catch them all red-handed, this is awesome!” Petra whispered loudly to herself, shaking her fists in excitement, “Okay, I’m gonna get a little closer so I can see what’s happening.”

_“Would you like me to engage Enhanced Combat Mode?”_

“Uh, yeah! There’s about to be some enhanced combat isn’t there?” Petra said eagerly as she prepared her footing to leap.

_“Activating Instant-Kill.”_ The suit said as crosshairs appeared on her goggles and targeted the bad guys’ heads.

“Nononono! I don’t want to kill anybody.” Petra said quickly in surprise. Even Petra knew she wasn’t ready for that type of mission yet.

_“Deactivating Instant-Kill.”_

With that out of the way, Petra shot her web so she could swing to the truck. At least, that’s what she was supposed to do. Instead of shooting a straight web from her wrist, only a small shot came out, and she didn’t realize it until she had already jumped off the sign and landed on her face.

“What the hell just happened...what was that?” She asked the suit accusingly as she peeled herself off of the filthy concrete.

_“You jumped off the sign and landed on your face.”_

“Yeah, I know that,” Petra shot a few more webs in the air and realized they were coming out in spurts, “What did you do to my webshooters?”

_“Rapid fire is the default for enhanced combat mode.”_

“Why would I need rapid fire?” Petra kept whispering as she hid behind the gas pump.

_“Would you like to see more options?”_ The A.I asked as Petra looked down at her wrists and saw a row of choices displayed like armoring up in a video game, _“You have 576 possible web shooter combinations.”_

“Wow...Mr. Stark really overdid it.” Petra muttered as she picked whichever icon looked coolest, “Um...that one.”

_“Great choice!”_

Petra shot out the web over the canopy, but when it latched on, the whole structure buzzed with electricity and sparked out lights.

“Nonono!” Petra panicked. She was trying to be stealthy here, but was miserably failing. When she finally separated herself from it, it stopped, and she ran towards the convenience store to hide, “What was that?!”

_“Taser webs.”_

“Taser webs? I don’t want taser webs!” Petra complained as she climbed to the top of the store.

_“You seem to be very unfamiliar with your webshooter settings. Would you like to run a refresher course?”_

“No, just...you choose.” Petra said in frustration, since this thing seemed to know how to strategize on its own anyway.

_“Sure thing.”_

Then, three large trucks appeared along the road, and the Vulture guy soared onto the scene to go after them.

“Oh, that’s him.” Petra said as she positioned her feet to get ready to go after him. She swung back to the sign and landed on the back of the truck that the Vulture targeted. He didn’t go for the main doors, so his plan must have been to make a new opening in the roof. She slowly crawled up to the top, expecting a laser-cut hole, but it appeared to be phasing technology that made a section of the roof completely transparent, with him already inside. She touched the barrier with her hand and it pushed back, “Woah, cool...it’s like some kind of matter phase shifter.”

She backed up when she noticed the Vulture coming back up again, waiting for her moment to stand up and yell, “Hey Big Bird! This doesn’t belong to you!”

His head shot towards her, and she barely muttered an “Oh God” before he took flight and zoomed at her. She leaped out of his way this time and shot a web at him, but two thin streams came out that didn’t adhere at all.

“Suit lady! What was that?!” Petra shouted in frustration as she jumped around, avoiding swings from the Vulture.

_“You told me to choose!”_

“What? No, just set everything back to normal!” Petra dodged his wings and watched him closely. She really didn’t have time for this. The bad guy hooked onto her backpack, so she struggled as she pulled it away from him. She really couldn’t lose yet another backpack.

_“Activating all systems.”_ They suit lady responded, but before Petra could make another move, the Vulture let go and the pulling force sent her flying back into the truck through the phased out window. When she tried to jump back out, the roof phased back, and her head collided with solid metal instantly. She fell back down, unconscious.

She only woke up an hour later when the truck came to a stop. She jolted up immediately felt an aching throb.

“Ugh...my head. “ She groaned.

_“You appear to have a mild concussion.”_ The suit lady said as Petra struggled to her feet and stumbled around, woozy and nauseous.

“Hey...so where am I right now?” She asked as she realized the truck must have reached its final stop.

_“I’m not sure. The container walls are hindering my sensors.”_

“Oh no...no no no!” Petra’s heart raced at the prospect of being cornered and trapped, “Wait a minute...they must’ve hijacked the truck and taken me to their evil lair! Okay, so maybe we can still fight our way out of this one.”

She winded herself up to charge the the doors, “3...2...1!”

As she kicked down the doors, she took in bright flourescent lighting. She rolled and landed with her fists up, but realized that she was alone in a giant warehouse. Tons of metal crates were stacked on top of each other, like the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“Where is this place?” Petra asked as she still felt her throbbing headache, “Suit lady, where am I?!”

_“You’re in the most secure facility in the Eastern Seaboard. The Damage Control Deep Storage Vault.”_

“No! Seriously?!” Petra groaned loudly and jumped towards the steel vault doors which were sealed shut. She made futile attempts to pull them apart, but they didn’t budge at all.

_“The door will most likely remained closed until morning.”_

“Yeah, I figured!” Petra shouted, started to really get tired of this suit lady, “Dammit! I would have had him if you didn’t mess with my webshooters!”

_“The intention of the webshooter combination settings are to utilize its potential to create a more varied range of attacks. It wasn’t meant to hinder you in anyway.”_

“Yeah? Well it did! And now I’m stuck here and I’m gonna be late for Decathlon tomorrow! So thanks a lot!” Petra kicked the door one more time.

_“I’m sorry if I upset you. Maybe running that refresher course will help you feel more confident about using your webshooters?”_

“No, just...just shut up!” Petra pulled her mask off of her face and threw it across the floor. Without it, the voice stopped. She stormed away for a few seconds, but after a few deep breaths she looked back at what she just discarded. The white eyes of the mask looked soullessly up at the ceiling. Petra felt a pit in her stomach and she rubbed her eyes which had watered in anger. She took a seat right on the concrete, restings her arms on her knees.

  
That sure was a realistic A.I Mr. Stark set up. She actually felt bad for yelling at the suit lady. She’d only met her tonight and she already pushed her away. That must have been a new record for her. She wasn’t even supposed to have her until she finished her training, whenever that was scheduled to happen. At the rate that Mr. Stark actually talked to her, she might have finished by the time she was 40.

After cooling down, Petra walked over to pick up the mask, but she hesitated to put it back on. Did Mr. Stark program the suit lady to hold grudges and get angry? After all, Ultron seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. She held her breath and closed her eyes as she slipped the mask back on. The goggle screen activated again, but the voice didn’t appear at first.

“Hello? Suit lady?” She asked timidly.

_“Hello, Petra.”_ The voice appeared just as chipper as it was before.

“Oh good. You’re still here.” Petra sighed in relief.

_“Of course I am. Where would I go?”_

“Hey...I’m sorry about...blowing up on you like that…” Petra murmured as she jumped up on one of the storage containers, “That was so uncool.”

 

_“It’s okay. It’s good to vent out your frustrations, sometimes.”_

Petra adjusted her webshooters back to the default and shot herself a hammock between two containers. If she was going to be stuck here, she should at least rest for a while.

“So suit lady...it kind of feels weird calling you ‘suit lady,’ you know? Do you have a name?” Petra asked.

_“No, but you can give me one if you like.”_

“Really? Okay um…” Petra thought about the first thing that came to her head, “How about Liz? No, no! God, that’d just be weird…”

Petra fumbled around the facility some more, making swings and ropes out of her webbing, “How about...Karen?”

_“I like that. Karen is a good name.”_

“Hey Karen, what else can this suit do?” Petra asked as she hung upside down while getting some studying done. In a split second, webbed wings popped out from under her arms, like a vampire dress and she gasped, “What?!”

  
A few minutes later, Petra suggested, “Hey, if you don’t mind, we can run that refresher course now, if you like.”

_“Excellent idea!”_ Karen cheered and provided the settings menu again allowing Petra to tap on each symbol and get a demonstration of each web. There was a ricochet web, splitter web, even a web grenade. Petra tried to think of uses for the splitter web since they were less sticky, and she found they made good jump ropes.

After running through a lot of the options, Petra already felt a lot better. Just a little time and effort was all it took to understand it. She took a break from the refresher course to lie on the container and look up at the ceiling. Karen was actually pretty cool once she got to know her. She was so easy to talk to, and she always knew what to say, a lot more advanced than those chat bots Petra used to play with on the computer. Before she knew it, Petra had carried on a whole conversation with her and school and Ned and Aunt May.

“Should I...tell Liz I’m Spider-Man?” Petra asked, deep in thought.

_“Who’s Liz?”_

“Who’s Liz…” Petra chuckled, “She’s...the best. She’s awesome. She goes to my school but I actually met her when I was in middle school. She talked me into going to the school I’m at now and...she...she…”

Petra’s eyes watered as couldn’t stop herself from bringing this up, “She helped me...through a really hard time in my life.”

_“What time was that?”_

Petra smiled painfully as the tears came down. Karen sure was nosy for an A.I. But just the tone of her voice made Petra feel more comfortable, like she knew she could trust her with this.

“Wow...okay...how do I start this…” Petra exhaled deeply, “...W-When...when I was in middle school...not during school, it was the summer...That’s not the point...Okay…”

Petra’s breath shook as her body erupted into shakes, “I was thirteen years old...and there was a guy...I thought he was my friend, but…”

Karen didn’t say anything. She let Petra collect herself and tell this story on her own time.

“Okay...Okay...I can do this.” Petra prepared herself mentally before continuing, “So when I was in middle school, I would do the Boys and Girls Club of America after school and during the summer. It was a great. I had a great time and made some good friends there. Then one day, this new kid joins. His name is Skip. He’s 16 and his mom put him in the engineering camp just to get him off of her back. Our project was to build a little robot, and Skip was always goofing off and saying how he’s not so good as this stuff. He was always complimenting me on how smart I was and how much better I was at this than him. When you’re 13 and a high schooler tells you how smart you are? Oof...nothing felt better. Every time I went, I was looking forward to building that robot and seeing Liz and talking to my friends...but I was really excited about hearing Skip say nice things to me.”

Petra’s face fell into a frown, and she webbed herself up a little ball to squeeze and toss between her hands, “I still don’t know if he meant it or if he was just saying those things to lure me in. So one day, he asks me to come over to his place to play video games. I was...I was so _happy_ to go. This guy who was older and cooler was inviting me over to his place, it was gonna be so much fun. I had to beg my Aunt and Uncle to let me go. They suspected something was up, but I was all like ‘Trust me, I’ve known this guy all summer. He’s cool. He’s my club friend.’ So they asked me if anyone else is going and if his parents were going to be home, and honestly I had no idea, but I assumed they would be, so I told them yes. So they let me go.”

Petra’s face grew wet under the mask, but she was in too deep to stop now, “So they dropped me off at his apartment, which was just the crappiest apartment you’ve ever seen and tell me they’ll be back to pick me up in three hours. I tried to argue for more time, but thankfully they didn’t back down. So Skip lets me in and I see that he’s by himself so I ask him ‘Hey are your parents home?’ and he says ‘Nah, mom’s at work and my dad doesn’t live with us.’ And so I felt really awkward for asking and at the same time I realized I lied to my aunt and uncle. So we did play video games as he said we would, and I was so excited because he had all these old consoles and classic games. I asked him if he had the first Metal Gear Solid game and he said he did and I was like ‘Wow, that’s so cool, I’ve always wanted to play it myself but I didn’t want to pay a bunch of money for the system and the game’ and he laughs and said that neither did he and that he got it from a guy he knows.”

Her body felt like it was sinking into the metal. The sense of fear returned and froze her where she lay. She set her arms down and weakly squeezed her web ball.

“So he puts on the game and lets me play it for a while, and I thought to myself, ‘Cool, this is fun. Aunt May and Uncle Ben were worried for nothing. I told them this would be fine.’ Then...he told me that he didn’t see a lot of girls play games like this, so it was ‘hot’ to watch me. I thought it was weird, but I brushed it off because he’s totally joking, right? Then he asked if he could take off his pants because the air conditioner was broken and he couldn’t stand the heat anymore. I figured since it wasn’t my place, I didn’t make the rules, so I told him it was okay. I didn’t want to be rude.”

Petra shook her head as she heard herself tell the story, looking back with hindsight at all the red flags, “He pulled out his phone and asked ‘Hey can I show you something?’ so I looked at it and he was browsing through some really dirty porn pics on his phone. It was like the hentai stuff where they have giant boobs that are covered in cum and it’s so weird...so I actually spoke up. I said ‘Ew! Why would you show me that?’ and he just laughed at me and said, ‘Aw, that’s not what you’re into? Well then, what do you like?’ and I said ‘What do you mean’ and he said ‘You know what I mean.’ And okay...I did know what he meant but I didn’t...want him to mean what he meant. And I...couldn’t come up with an answer. I mean...I was thirteen already, I knew what sex was, but I didn’t like to think about it too much. So I said ‘I don’t know what I like yet.’ And he...he...he took that...as a…”

Petra rolled on her side, feeling disconnected from herself, like she was watching this happen to different girl in her head. A girl who she could scream at to get out, call someone, or do literally anything than what she did.

“I didn’t know what to do.” Petra said in a monotonous voice, “I froze. I didn’t push him away when pulled me in. I didn’t bite or scream when he kissed me, even though the taste of his tongue made me sick. I didn’t do _anything_. I didn’t want to make him angry. When he had me pinned down to the carpet and pulled down my shorts, I did try to ask him to stop, but he just smiled, like he liked hearing me ask that.”

Petra remained silent for a full minute, but Karen didn’t respond. It was like she could tell that wasn’t the end of the story.

“He finally stopped when he could hear my uncle’s car drive up. He rushed to put his pants back on and helped me put mine back on. I couldn’t even think about what had just happened. I went back to the car and tried to act like everything was normal. Uncle Ben asked me if I had fun and I said yes. And that was the end of that talk…” Petra finally sat back up again, “I’m...I’m so sorry that’s not what you wanted to hear at _all_. I was just trying to tell you who Liz is! So anyway, Liz...was the first to notice that something was wrong. She texted me when she realized I wasn’t coming back to the club. She talked me into telling my aunt and uncle and the police about what happened. I was so scared to, because I thought that _I_ was one who was going to get in trouble. Because I lied to Aunt May and Uncle Ben about Skip’s parents being there. I thought the police would tell me I should have known this was going to happen because why else would a teenage boy invite me to his house when he was home alone?”

Finally, Karen broke her silence.

_“How did they react?”_

“Well, if you’re going to pry…” Petra forced herself to laugh again to lighten the air, “Aunt May and Uncle Ben just cried and hugged me. They didn’t make me feel bad for what happened, because they’re the best. They even talked to the cops for me. And I ended up being one of the lucky ones, because I hadn’t washed or thrown out my underwear from that day. So forensics took a look at it and found substantial evidence. I didn’t even have to go to the courthouse. They recorded my statement from home and it turned out that Skip had a previous record of other crimes, so this was the last straw. He got juvie, and because I was a minor, they didn’t print my identity in the paper. So the whole thing was wrapped up after a year, and no one at my school even knew what happened.”

_“Except Liz, because she goes to your school.”_

“Yeah...yeah you got it.” Petra said quietly, “So yeah, I thought I would happier once Skip went to juvie and I would never have to see him again and justice was served and all that...but I didn’t feel like it was enough. I still felt so...weak. And then, all of sudden, I get these powers I feel like...I can be strong again. Like I can take on any one who tries to hurt me and they won’t stand a chance against me this time. But...I still can’t tell Liz how I feel. I can’t tell her how much she means to me...and I want to tell her I’m Spider-Man so that there will be no secrets between us and because she loves Spider-Man, but...it’ll just be really weird, you know?”

_“Why would it be weird?”_

“Well, first of all, she’s expecting a _man_. How disappointed do you think she’s going to be when she sees it’s me?”

_“Well, if I were her, I wouldn’t be disappointed at all.”_

“Aw, c’mon. You’re just saying that. Give me one good reason why she’d actually be happy to see it’s me.”

_“Because she was your hero, and then she would know you became a hero yourself.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/westcott.htm 
> 
> Just a link to show I didn't pull this backstory out of my ass.


	15. The Decathlon

Petra burst into ugly tears from Karen’s encouragement. She had to take the mask off to allow herself to breathe. She wrapped her arms around her legs and cried into her knees. Explaining the story as a whole was beyond painful, but it also made her feel lighter, physically and mentally. Still, she needed a couple of hours to take her out of that place and remember why she was here.

“Ugh...I can’t take this anymore!” Petra exclaimed as she slipped her mask back on, “We gotta get out of here.”

She slowly stood up to gain a sense of her body again, and flipped down to check the contents of the truck, “There’s gotta be something in here I can use.”

She opened a duffle bag on the floor and pulled out some kind of generator that powered something. That wouldn’t work. The next thing, however, was an actual Ultron head! So cool, but last time she checked, Ultron’s blasters didn’t come from his eyes, so unfortunately she had to put it aside. Then, she found a purple glowing jewel that was familiar to her.

“Huh!” She mused, “It’s like the glowy thing!”

_“That glowy thing is an explosive Chitauri energy core.”_ Karen explained matter-of-factly.

“Woah...woahwoahwoah…! You mean we’ve been carrying around a bomb?!” Petra shouted as she gently set it down and backed away from it.

_“It would require radiation to transform it into an explosive state.”_ Karen said, but Petra was already scrambling for her phone and trying to call Ned.

“Nononono…” Petra panicked as the call failed automatically due to the lack of a signal.

Petra jumped and webbed herself to the giant doors. It didn’t matter if she got in trouble for being in a top secret facility, Ned and the team were in danger!

“Hey! Please! Please somebody let me out!” She screamed as she pounded on the door, “Karen, you have to help me override that time lock!”

She crawled over to the control box and pulled the case open. She knew that breaking all these wires might disable it, or it might just keep the door stuck indefinitely.

_“In order to input an override, you will have to use an interface.”_

“What interface? This is all circuitry! If I had my laptop maybe, but I didn’t exactly bring a keyboard with m-” Petra thought about the contents of her backpack and the one thing with a screen and a port, “My calculator!”

  
She jumped back to the container unit and pulled the graphing calculator out of her bag, “Looks like I can finally put this overpriced brick to good use!”

She connected the calculator to the motherboard and started running sequences like crazy. She did it ten times, a hundred times, two hundred times. The process was literally taking hours, but she kept at it like her own life depended on it. Finally, after sequence 247, an alarm rang to signal the opening of the doors.

“Haha! It finally worked!” Petra exclaimed, and she swung out before they opened completely, “Karen, please tell me there’s a truck going back to D.C!”

_“Upcoming on your right.”_

“Oh Thank God, please let things keep going right…” Petra said, leaping on the truck and clinging to the top. The sun shining reminded her that it was already morning. In order to get to D.C, she had to keep changing trucks to keep herself moving.

“Karen, I need to get to Decathlon as fast as possible!”

_“Sure thing, just tell me where it is.”_

“It’s right across the street from the Washington Monument.” Petra told her as she attempted to call Ned now that she finally got a signal, but it went to voicemail, so she shouted, “Ned! Call me back! The glowy thing’s a bomb!”

Karen mapped out a path by the fastest vehicles going in the right direction. Petra followed it until she made it into the city, when thankfully her phone rang with Ned’s ringtone.

“Oh Ned, you’re alive!” Petra said with relief.

“Petra! Are you okay?” Ned asked in concern.

“Yeah, but where’s the glow- the glowy thing?!” She asked, panicking.

“Don’t worry, it’s safe, it’s in my backpack.” Ned said calmly.

“No, no, Ned listen! The glowy thing is dangerous!” Petra exclaimed, but it didn’t sound like he was hearing her.

“Petra, you missed the Decathlon. You’re lucky Michelle covered for you. We’re at the Washington Monument now, you got to-” Ned told her, but his phone was picked up by someone else.

“Petra, is that you?” Liz asked on the other end, sounding annoyed.

“Oh, hey Liz!” Petra said with a high voice, trying to mask her worry, “Please put Ned back on the phone.”

_“Is that Liz?”_ Karen asked, _“You should tell her how you feel.”_

“Petra, I’m really worried about you. Did you really stay behind just because of period cramps?” Liz asked.

“Is that what- I mean- Michelle told you about that?” Petra said, playing along with the cover story as she ran towards the monument.

“Yeah, she said you were cramping so hard you threw up. If that’s why you couldn’t go swimming last night, you could have told me. You…” Liz sighed and got quiet, “You used to tell me everything.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I’ll explain everything later, but I have to talk to Ned right now, it’s really important!” Petra’s voice grew strained, especially when she heard an adult voice on the other line tell Liz to put her items on a belt. She realized they must be at the security clearance where there were metal detectors and...X-rays. “Liz! There’s something in Ned’s backpack that’s really dangerous, don’t let it go through an X-ray! Liz? Liz!”

But the other line went dead. Petra’s heart sank as she feared the core had detonated already and killed them. She hoped they were still all right, but tears welled in her eyes as she zoomed twice as fast to the monument. When she made it, she saw people backing away from monument which was still standing, but had gravel falling off from the sides like something erupted from the inside.

“No!” Petra shouted as she looked up at it, “Karen, what’s going on up there?!”

Her specs scanned the building and gave a visual on the elevator inside, _“The Chitauri core has detonated and caused severe structural damage to the elevator.”_

“My friends are up there!” She heard a familiar voice declare. She looked over and saw Michelle had stayed behind, but that meant the rest of the team was trapped.

“What?” Petra exclaimed before switching to her hero voice and telling her, “Uh, don’t worry ma’am, everything’s going to be okay.”

She ran past the crowd, excusing her way through and looked up at what she had to scale, “Oh my God, that’s tall…”

She jumped up and crawled as quickly as she could.

_“Estimated 10 minutes before catastrophic failure.”_ Karen warned, _“Safety systems are completely failing. The occupants are in imminent mortal danger.”_

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Petra cried out as she tried slingshoting herself forward to save time.

_“You now have 125 seconds until catastrophic failure.”_

“What?!” Petra yelled, “But you said ten minutes like two minutes ago!”

_“Unexpected motion has caused the deterioration to escalate.”_

“How do I get in there?” Petra asked.

_“Activating reconnaissance drone.”_

“Woah…Has that been there this whole time?” Petra asked, “That’s awesome.”

_“Locating optimal entry point.”_ Karen said as she gave her a live feed of the drone’s view, _“Proceed to southwest window.”_

“Karen, I’m on my way.” Petra said as she jumped to the other side of the monument and scaled her way to the top.

She adjusted herself to face her back to the stone. While her powers made her able to stick to the surface, she always feared that it would just disappear for even one second and she’d fall. She made the mistake of looking down and saw she was way too high for comfort. She was used to tall buildings, but only with they were surrounded by other tall buildings she could swing from. From here, if she fell, she would have nothing to swing on.

_“What’s wrong? You’ve reached the southwest window. Why are you hesitating?”_ Karen asked gently.

“It’s fine, I just…” Petra shook in her voice, “I’ve never been this high before.”

_“You have also not reinstalled your parachute, so a fall from this height would most likely be lethal.”_ Karen added.

“Thanks...thanks for that reminder, Kar.” Petra said exasperated as she slowly took a step on the window and tried kicking it, “Why is it not breaking?”

_“It’s four-inch ballistic glass. You’ll have to create more momentum.”_

Petra webbed the top of the monument and hung on like a mountain climber. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that her friends’ lives depended on this. If she did nothing, they could die. If she tried and failed, then at least she’d be dead with them. She jumped and swung back like a pendulum, but it didn’t budge. She jumped farther and came back hard enough to make a dent. However, she was interrupted by the sound of an alarm and the whirring of helicopters.

“This is the D.C Metro Police. Identify yourself.” A voice came over the speakers. She looked and saw a large machine gun aimed right at her.

“My friends are in there! My friends are in there, Stop!” She said quickly in a panic.

“Return to the ground immediately!” The officer ordered.

Petra’s heart raced as she tried to think of the quickest solution. If she made the wrong move, she’d get shot, and if that didn’t kill her, the fall would. But she also needed to get inside before the elevator collapsed.

“Stand down! Return to the ground immediately!” He repeated himself. She didn’t want to test their patience, “Return to the ground or we will open fire!”

She crawled to the very tip of the monument, telling herself, “You got this...you got this…”

“This is your last chance!”

“I’m gonna die…” She took one last deep breath before she leaped in the air, with her web wings popping out, allowing her to soar over the helicopter. On the drop down, she webbed the landing bars of the bird and swung back towards the window, finally reaching the force she needed to break through the window and slide across the floor.

She angled her web to bounce off the broken ceiling and reach down to catch the elevator before it hit the bottom. It pulled her with it until she supported her feet against the frame of the doorway.

“Hah...I did it!” She gasped out, but then the door frame broke and she was pulled into the shaft. The elevator got stuck on the way down and came to a sudden stop, dropping Petra right through the hole in the ceiling and landing inside the elevator itself with a splat. The force broke the railing that was in the way, and the elevator continued in its drop towards the bottom.

Petra opened her eyes to see the top of the tower getting farther away. She shot one last webbing to attach herself to the top, and caught the top of the elevator with her legs as she scrunched herself to the little ceiling that was left. Once they came to a safe stop, she looked around to see Ned, Liz, and Mr. Harrington were the only ones left in the elevator. She cleared her throat to lower her voice again.

“Hey, how you doing?” She sounded casual to make pulling them up look easier than it was, “I got you.”

“Yes! Yes!” Ned jumped around in excitement which made the whole elevator shake.

“Heyheyhey! Hey big guy, quit moving around!” She warned him, as she almost lost her footing on the ceiling.

“Sorry sir!” Ned said, finally being convincing that he didn’t know the secret.

She pulled them all the way to the top floor where the staff was able open the doors.

“Alright, this is your stop.” She said with a strained voice, “Go go go! Everybody out, move it people!”

They pulled out Ned first, and then Mr. Harrington, but Liz was hesitating. She was too afraid to take another step. She was frozen. Mr. Harrington held his hand out for her, but as she slowly reached for it, the last chunk of the ceiling broke from under Petra’s feet and the elevator tumbled down once again.

“Liz!” Petra screamed and instinctively reached for her, shooting her web out to catch her wrist. As the rest of the elevator fell, Liz hung suspended in the air, screaming. Petra pulled her back to her, grabbing her hand, saying softly, “You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

Once she was close enough to the top, the staff finally pulled her to safety. Petra looked at the fear on Liz’s face as she asked, “So, uh, is everyone okay?”

_“This is your chance, Petra. Tell her who you are.”_ Karen goaded her.

Honestly, Petra wanted to just rip off her mask right then and reveal to her whole team that she was the one who saved them, and that their Spider-Man was actually a Spider-Woman. It would complete the drama of the moment, but she didn’t. Because her webbing came loose and she fell down the elevator shaft herself.

“...Thank you.” Mr. Harrington said as she fell. Petra felt like such a dunce, she just let herself fall for a few seconds before webbing the railings to stop herself.

From the top of the building, she heard Flash Thompson ask loudly, “Are you really dating Petra Parker?!”


	16. Going off Grid

Petra knew that the team would be questioned by the police before returning to the hotel, but if she stuck around, Spider-Man would be questioned too, and possibly arrested. She snuck out through the crowd before the cops could notice her and leaped from building to building back to the hotel. She snuck back in through the rooftop entrance and dashed to her hotel room. From over the railing, she could see her team entering the lobby and Mr. Harrington catching the elevator in time. She nervously meddled with her room key and ran inside as soon as it pinged open. She pressed on the spider and threw her uniform into her duffle bag.

If Michelle told Mr. Harrington she was on her period, then she had to act like it before they got to her room. She filled a glass of water to put at her bedside and threw herself into bed and pressed one of the many hotel pillows to her stomach, loudly groaning to make herself be heard through the door.

Finally she heard the door click and groaned even more pathetically.Fortunately, it was only Michelle.

“Did you rent porn on this TV or was that you making that noise?” Michelle asked.

“I thought it would scare off Mr. Harrington.” Petra said.

“I think he’s been scared enough after what he just went through.” Michelle said.

Petra was about to play dumb, but then she realized it would look even more suspicious so she weakly pulled herself up and asked, “I saw. Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, where were you?” Michelle asked.

“I can’t...really…” Petra bit her lip, “Thanks for covering for me, by the way.”

“Yeah, you owe me.” Michelle rolled her eyes, “Just get dressed, everyone’s gotta get back on the bus.”

* * *

  
As soon as they got back to school, all the parents were waiting with bated breath, relieved to have their kids back safe and sound. Aunt May pulled her into her arms and hugged her tightly, tears in her eyes. If Aunt May was this scared about her almost being with the team during the incident, Petra couldn’t imagine how she would feel if she knew what she was doing at the incident.

The next day at school, she was stunned to see Spider-Man mania had hit the school. She had a lot of powers but making everyone fall in love with her was not one of them. Of course, saving the Decathlon team from certain death may have had something to do with it. Seeing the school news talk about about her though felt pretty good, and she smiled to herself as she walked past the TV.

“Dude...dude...dude…” Ned caught up with her before their next class, “What is it like being famous when nobody knows it’s you?”

“ _Crazy_ , dude…” She said quietly with a big smile.

“Crazy…” Ned said in a quick breath, “Should we tell everyone?”

“No.” Petra asserted.

“Should I tell everyone?” Ned asked.

“No, no dude, that’s not a good idea.” Petra insisted.

“Oh well,” Ned gave a quick defeated look before moving towards the classrooms, “We’re gonna be late to class.”

“I’m not going to class.” She told him.

Ned turned around in exasperation, “Look, you got lucky with the Decathlon thing, but ditching school is a whole other level.”

“I figured it out, right?” Petra pulled him closer again to explain, “The wing suit guy is stealing from Damage Control, and what he takes from Damage Control...that’s how he builds the weapons. All we gotta do is...catch him!”

“But we have a Spanish quiz.” Ned groaned.

“Ned...I am probably never going to come back here. Mr. Stark is moving the Avengers upstate and he didn’t even tell me. I can’t let him leave me behind, so when I bring this guy in, he’ll-” Petra started to explain, but Ned cut in.

“Dude, you want to be a high school dropout?” Ned asked in disbelief.

“I am _so_ far beyond high school right now.” Petra said with a roll of her eyes as she walked out through the school doors.

* * *

  
Petra went back to her apartment and made sure Aunt May was still at work before locking herself in her room and putting her mask on to speak with her little helper.

“Hey Karen, what’s up?” She asked.

_“Hey Petra!”_ Karen greeted in a friendly voice, _“How was your Spanish quiz?”_

“Listen, I was wondering if you could help me. I’m trying to figure out who the guys under the bridge were that night, but I mean...I can only kind of remember a part of a license plate.” She explained as she swiveled in her chair and swirled her pen in her hand.

_“I can run facial recognition of the footage of that encounter.”_

“Footage?” Petra asked.

_“Yes, Petra, I record everything you see.”_ Karen explained calmly.

_“Everything?!”_ Petra asked in both shock and embarrassment.

“Everything.”

_“Like all the time?”_ Petra asked.

_“It’s called the Baby Monitor Protocol.”_ Karen explained, pulling up files of video captured from Petra’s goggles.

“Does...does Mr. Stark watch these?!” Petra asked in horror, “Wh-Wh-What about when I’m changing or I have go to the bathroom when I’m wearing the mask?!”

_“Well it wouldn’t be a baby monitor if the adult wasn’t able to watch them, but don’t worry, the Baby Monitor Protocol is programmed to detect and erase sensitive material.”_ Karen explained.

“Thank God…Wait…” Petra dropped her pen as she remembered something key, “Did...Did you record...that talk we had...in the warehouse? Because that was like...really personal.”

_“Yes, I did.”_ Karen admitted.

Petra’s heart sank into her feet and she rubbed her face, “Did...Did Mr. Stark watch it?”

_“Mr. Stark hasn’t viewed that file yet.”_ Karen said.

“Erase it.” Petra said sternly. She was more than relieved that Mr. Stark hadn’t seen her at her lowest, but she felt stupid for not realizing sooner that his tech was recording her. If he put in a tracker, of course he would put in a monitor, “Just...just delete that entire night, please.”

_“No problem, Petra. File deleted. Anything else?”_

  
“Yeah, roll back to last Friday?”

The screen played back to Friday afternoon when she was practicing what to say in the mirror.

_“Hey everyone, kickass party! What’s up, Liz? Petra’s told me a lot about you.” She winked with one of her goggles._

“No, c’mon, that was just me messing around, go to later in the day.” Petra gestured.

_“It is I, Thor! Son of Odin!” She declared as she held up Aunt May’s tenderizer mallet._

“No, nononono, oh my God, that’s definitely not what we wanna watch.” Petra cringed and closed her eyes.

_“Your impressions are very funny.”_ Karen said.

“S-Shut up!” Petra blushed, “Just forward to the arms deal.”

Finally, the three guys and the truck appeared in her view, so she asked, “The two on the right, who are they?”

_“Searching law enforcement databases…”_ Karen said as she scanned through records in a fraction of a second, _“No records found for two of the individuals.”_

“Nothing?” Petra asked, fearing she had reached a dead end.

_“One individual identified.”_ She explained as she ran facial recognition on the guy they were selling to, _“Aaron Davis. Age 33. He has a criminal record and an address here in Queens.”_

“Well, let’s pay him a visit.” Petra smiled as she got excited about finding a lead.

_“Would you like me to activate the Enhanced Interrogation Protocol?”_

“Um…” Petra thought about it as she changed into her suit, “Yeah, sure, as long as it doesn’t do anything to my...web shooters.”

Her voice got super deep in an instant. She coughed to make sure it wasn’t really coming from her. The voice sounded like some kind of big alien monster.

“Woah, is this interrogation mode?” She chuckled, “This sounds badass. Why have I been straining my voice all this time, I could have just used this!”

She tracked Aaron Davis down to a parking garage outside of his local grocery store.She sent the little drone to follow behind him so she could catch him right as he was about to open his trunk. She webbed his hand to the car and acted all tough as she marched towards him.

“Remember me?” The deep voice boomed out of the suit as she walked with a swagger. He tried to back away, but he was caught, “I need information and you’re going to give it to me now!”

“Alright, just chill…” He said in a sleepy voice.

“C’mon!” She demanded.

“...What happened to your voice?” He asked.

“What do you mean what happened to my voice?” Petra asked. This was not how interrogations where supposed to go, she was supposed to ask the questions.

“I heard you by the bridge, I know what a girl sounds like.” He said like it was obvious.

She tensed when he said that. He could tell? Could other people tell too? How many people were onto it exactly? She put all that aside and didn’t let it break her cover, “I-I’m not a girl! I’m a boy. I mean- I’m a man!”

“I don’t care what you are, boy, girl…” Davis carried out his business like it was nothing, packing his groceries into his trunk. The voice wasn’t scaring him at all. Maybe it only worked on those crime dramas because it was too dark to see the person interrogating them.

“I’m not a…” Petra groaned and surrendered, “Ugh, forget it. C’mon, man, look, who is selling these weapons?! I need to know. Give me names, or else!”

He looked at her coldly for a brief second, and then slammed his trunk down loudly. She jumped back nervously, which only proved that she wasn’t nearly as threatening as she wanted to be.

“You ain’t never done this before, huh?” Davis looked almost amused.

Now she was just embarrassed. She sighed in defeat, “Deactivate interrogation mode.”

Now he was laughing at her, which just made her feel worse. Still, she needed to try to get something out of him.

“Look man,” She pleaded with her real teenage girl voice, dropping the fake persona, “These guys are selling weapons that are crazy dangerous. They can’t just be out on the streets! Look, if one of them can just cut Delmar’s bodega in half, imagine-”  
“You know Delmar’s?” He asked.

“Yeah,” She said, “Best sandwich in Queens.”

“Subhaven’s pretty good.” He insisted.

“Ehh…” She said, “Too much bread.”

“I like bread.” He said.

“C’mon man, please.” She pleaded desperately.

His face remained unmoved. He knew she wasn’t going to do anything to him. Her spirits sunk and she turned away muttering to herself, “Stupid interrogation mode. Karen, don’t ever do that again.”

“The other night you told that dude, ‘If you’re gonna shoot somebody, shoot me.” Davis told her, “That’s pretty ballsy. I don’t want those weapons in this neighborhood, I got a nephew who live here.”

She turned back around with renewed hope and asked calmly, “Who are these guys? What can you tell me about the guy with the wings?”

“Other than he’s a psychopath dressed like a demon? Nothing.” Davis said truthfully, “I don’t know who he is or where he is.”

Petra leaned back on his car, throwing her head back in dejection, sighing.

“I do know where he’s gonna be.” He offered.

“Really?” She perked up.

“Yeah this...crazy dude I used to work with. He’s supposed to be doing a deal with him.” He said.

“Yes!” Petra jumped in excitement and skipped off in delight.

“Hey, hey!” He called after her, “I didn’t tell you where. You don’t have a location.”

“Right, right…” She jumped right back to him sheepishly, leaning over his car, “Yeah, of course, my bad. Silly...just...yeah...where is it?”

“Can I give you some advice?” He asked.

“Mmm?” She turned her head.

“You gotta get better at this part of the job.” He said.

“Hmm...you think if I act all cute, I could get the bad guys to talk?” She jumped on his car and lay on her stomach with her feet swishing in the air.

“Not the ones you wanna be talking to.” He said, “Staten Island Ferry, Eleven.”

“Oh, that’s soon!” She jumped off the car and gestured to his hand before she ran off, “Hey, that’s gonna dissolve in two hours.”

“No no no, come fix this.” He demanded, pointing to his webbed hand.

“Two hours. You deserve that!” She skipped away even as he argued that he had ice cream in there, “You deserve that, you’re a criminal! Bye, Mr. Criminal!”


	17. The Ferry

She swung to the ferry dock without hesitation and heard the horn blare as the boat took off. That wasn’t a problem for her now that she discovered she had web wings. She leaped off of the top of the loading dock and spread her arms out, letting the tarpish fabric glide across the air until she stuck her palm to the side of the boat. Once she got her bearings she gave herself a quick little “Nice” for encouragement before she crawled up to the portal window for passengers.

“Okay, Karen. Activate Enhanced Reconnaissance mode.” Petra whispered as she spotted the Shocker guy.

_“Sure thing.”_ Karen said as she zoomed in on his face while he was talking to another guy with his back turned.

“He’s up front. Main deck.” The other guy told him in a voice that turned in her mind.

“I hate this guy.” Shocker groaned.

“That’s the guy from the bridge, right? Who’s the other guy? He seems familiar.” Petra asked.

_“There’s no record of him in my criminal database.”_ Karen responded, _“Incoming call from May Parker, should I reroute to your heads up display?”_

“I can’t talk right now, I’ll call her back.” Petra told her. Shit, did the school realize she was gone already? And they called Aunt May about it? Surely, she could get out of trouble after she made this big catch, but she couldn’t count her chicken before the hatch.

Petra plucked her little spider-drone off of her chest and released him into the air, “Hey droney, keep an eye on that guy. We can’t let anybody get away this time.”

Petra crawled to the hood above the main deck where the buyers were waiting. She could tell by the look of them that they were the right guys. Karen scanned their faces as Petra asked who the guy on the left was. He had a shaved head and a tough look to him.

_“Mac Gargan. Extensive criminal record including homicide. Would you like me to activate Instant Kill?”_ Karen suggested.

“No! Karen, stop it with the Instant Kill already!” Petra whispered loudly.

Soon, Shocker arrived and told the buyers only the phrase, “White pickup truck.”

“Droney, scan the ship for a white pickup truck.” Petra instructed, feeling excited as she felt like a real spy catching the bad guys in the act. The drone located the truck as Gargan’s guys found and lifted the tarp to see the goods.

“Ah, this is too perfect! They got the weapons, the buyers, the sellers all in one place.” Petra bubbled in delight as she felt she was finally gonna score a big win for herself.

_“Incoming call from Tony Stark.”_

Petra tensed up and muttered, “No, no no, don’t answer!”

But Tony’s call came through anyway. It looked like he programmed the suit to always accept his calls at anytime. A square on her goggles appeared with him in the seat of a car. He pulled off his shades, greeting her professionally, “Miss Parker. Got a sec?”

“Um, uh...I’m actually at school?” Petra tried to blow him off.

_“No, you’re not.”_ Karen answered cluelessly.

“Nice work in D.C.” Tony said like he had to rehearse this.

“Okay.” Petra said quietly, trying to focus on Gargan and his crew so she could find her moment drop in.

“My dad never really gave me a lot of support. Now, I’m just trying to, uh...break the cycle of shame.” Tony explained. As much as Petra truly wanted to hear him get into his super sad backstory, she couldn’t let Gargan get away.

“Um, thanks but I’m kind of in the middle of something right now?” She tried to break out of this as soon as possible. She could talk to him after she nailed these guys on her own.

“Don’t cut me off when I’m complimenting you.” Tony said, which put her off. Geez, did he talk to Cap like this? No wonder he went crazy. But Tony continued on until he heard the horn from the ship, “Anyway great things are about to happen...what is that?”

“I’m at...Band practice.” Petra lied.

“That’s odd, Happy told me you quit band six weeks ago. In fact, he said that was the last time you texted him. What’s up? He’s dying to hear from you.” Tony asked. So Happy did read her messages. Then why didn’t he answer? Was it just an old guy thing to not answer messages or was he trying to make her feel like an idiot on purpose?

“Well, maybe I rejoined band! What’s it to you?” Petra got frustrated as she watched Shocker try to give Gargan the keys to the van, which meant her window to catch them was closing, and she was stuck on the line with Mr. Stark.

“Excuse me, young lady?” Tony answered in offense.

“I told you I’m busy, Mr. Stark! End call!” Petra snapped.

“Hey.” Mr. Stark was definitely pissed when she hung up on him, but she’d worry about that later.

“I’ll take those!” Petra exclaimed as she webbed the keys right out of Shocker’s hand before Gargan could get them, “Yoink!”

She leaped down in front of them for her grand entrance and said, “Hey guys! The illegal weapons deal ferry was at 10:30. You missed it!”

She used splitter web to get the two guys in front of her who drew their guns and then used them to propel herself forward and kick Gargan in the chin, knocking him towards the water, but then catching him with a web and pulling him back to knock his body on the stern of the ship.

She heard the electrical buzzing behind her that told her Shocker had brought out his gear. She ducked out of his way and made his gauntlet get caught in the lattice gate protecting the edge of the boat. She heard the goons scrambling for their weapons and spun around to tell them, “Woah, woah, woah, not so fast!”

She webbed them and a motorbike to swing them around until they hit the hard metal flooring.

“Oooh, you guys okay? My bad, that was a little hard.” She said. She wasn’t trying to kill them, just apprehend them. She looked at Shocker, who glared at her angrily as he tried to pull his gauntlet free. She jested as she changed out her webbing chip, “I gotta say, the other guy was way better with that thing. I’m...honestly? I’m shocked.”

Without turning around, she fired a web grenade at the buyer running from the truck, which trapped him on the wall when it went off. Then she heard the last guy being knocked into the truck instead of coming towards her. She looked over to see he’d been taken out by the other passenger on deck, the one Shocker was talking to. Seeing his face made him feel even more familiar, but she couldn’t put a name or a place to him. She was about to charge towards him when she heard,

“Freeze! FBI!”

Suddenly, a bunch of armed mens seemed to come out of nowhere and surrounded her, telling her to get on the ground.

She put her hands up in defense and confusion, “Wait, wait, what do you mean FBI?!”

_“The FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”_

“I know what FBI means, but what are they doing here?!” Petra asked.

Then, a loud noise burst from the end of the garage, and the FBI agents all turned to face it instead of her. The Vulture took flight, and he soared in their direction, coming in dangerously fast.

“Get out of the way, get out of the way!” Petra warned the agents, as she knew they couldn’t just shoot him down while he was wearing that tech. Vulture grabbed a car with his talons, intending to hurl it their way. She pushed one agent out of the way, but as she tried to save the others, the car swung by and knocked her off to the side.

As she got up and tried to lead the agents to safety, Vulture announced to his crew as he armed himself with a plasma cannon, “Get to the top deck, we’re getting out of here.”

She tried to web Shocker, but he slipped away, so she aimed for the big prize and webbed Vulture by his leg to keep him in one place while the FBI agents fired at him. She couldn’t stay put as he fired the cannon at the boat, however, so she connected her webbing to a car to stay put and free herself to get closer. She webbed up different strings to keep him attached to the ship, but his wings cut through all of them. She came up with a new idea as she webbed up his plasma cannon and pulled at it. He wasn’t letting go, so she shouted for Karen to activate the taser web. The shock was enough to get him to release his grip, but he had already triggered it to fire.

As the weapon fell back on the ship, it shot around in crazy directions. She tried to stop it by avoiding each blast and clogging the shaft with webs and trapping it to the floor.

“You’re messing with things you don’t understand!” Vulture warned her before flying off.

If Petra wasn’t so focused on the plasma cannon, she would scream. The bad guys had gotten away again, and she couldn’t go after them because the purple lasers were trying to shoot out of the gun. She tried to add more and more webbing, but it wouldn’t shut off, the energy just built up and up until finally, it escaped from the pores of her webbing and shot out in beams of hot purple rays. She put up her arms to defend herself as the beams made a terribly loud shockwave. When it finally calmed down, she heard the sound of metal cracking and water bursting. She looked on the ground to see a break running through the floor, and then she realized the whole boat had been cut in half.

“Oh my God, what do I do?!” Petra panicked. This wasn’t how she imagined it going at all, even in the worst case scenario, “Karen! Uh, give me an X-ray of the boat and target all the strongest points!”

She didn’t know if webbing the ship back together would work, but it was the only thing she could think of. She jumped from beam to beam, throwing web grenades left and right to try and connect all the marked points before both halves of the ship sank into the water. Her webs criss-crossed along multiple levels, and she tried to swing around multiple lines to give them more support. When she finally reached the other end of the boat, she took a quick second to breathe before analyzing her work. For the moment, it looked like the boat was holding. It actually worked!

_“Great job, Petra. You were 98% successful.”_ Karen announced proudly, even though that number didn’t sit right with her.

“98?” Petra asked, but before Karen could respond, she heard the snapping of multiple webs. One by one, they were coming undone. The ship continued to fall apart. People were screaming as they feared for their lives.

“No!” Petra exclaimed as time slowed down for her. She had to make things right, she just had to. The last thing she needed to do was freeze. She swung between the two halves of the ship, webbing it just a little more. All she needed was a little more. She shot out webs from each of her hands, catching each side as they continued to fall. She got caught in between, the weight of each half pulling at her. She pulled back with all her strength, all the super strength she was gifted with, praying it would be enough. She yelled as she could feel the stretch in her arms moving to her chest, driving to tear her in half.

Finally, the pain subsided as her body no longer felt the pull. She looked around to see her webs coming closer together to lower her down.

“What the hell?” She muttered to herself as the boat seemed to be coming back together on its own. Then, her heart dropped dead in her stomach when she saw Iron Man’s face peeking through the window.

“Hi, Spider-Man. Band practice was it?” She could hear the smug anger in his voice as he held one half of the boat as he floated. Then, dozens of smaller propellers attached themselves to both sides and slowly pushed the boat together again. Once the boat was stable, she jumped off deck to follow behind him. Thank God the suit showed up in time. Now they could fix this together and she could tell him about the deal she stopped.

“Mr. Stark!” She crawled behind him as he used his jets to meld the cracks shut, “Hey, Mr. Stark, can I do anything? What do you want me to do?!”

Iron Man finally looked her way at the top of the ship, telling her, “I think you’ve done enough.”

He flew off and left her alone at the lookout deck, leaving her to evade the incoming rescue ships and helicopters on her own. She knew she was in trouble, but he needed to know she had a plan for all this and it was going great until the FBI showed up. She was also grateful to him for saving her life and everyone on the ship, but she still had a lot to say to him that she’d been waiting to say for these past few days. She swung off to the nearest building and waited for him to show up, stewing in her emotions as she did. Tears welled up in her eyes as the gravity of the situation weighed on her.

“Previously on Petra Screws the Pooch, I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multi-million dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do.” Tony scolded her as he, or his Iron Man suit at least, floated above her, looking down on her like he always did.

“Is everyone okay?” She asked first. She needed to hear it to clear her conscious.

“No thanks to you.”

Hearing that, especially from him, really boiled her skin. She was sorry for what happened, but she knew that she wasn’t the one who set off that weapon in the first place. Vulture did, and if she had caught him like she planned to, she would have gotten to show him that she was a real hero and not just his little sidekick playing pretend.

“No thanks to me?!” She jumped up and marched towards his floating suit, raising her voice at him, “Those weapons were out there and I _tried_ to tell you about it, but you didn’t listen! None of this would have happened if you had just _listened_ to me!”

She wiped the tears that were falling from her face, trying to keep herself from losing it entirely, “If you even cared, you’d actually be here.”

Then, the suit descended to the ground, and armor came apart to reveal the actual Tony Stark standing inside. He walked out of the suit and approached her. She backed away defensively. Now she had to see the disappointment face to face, and she didn’t think she could take it.

“I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Did you think they wouldn’t notice your little Instagram posts? Did you know I was the _only_ one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a 14-year-old kid.” He argued as he kept moving forward, like he was trying to corner her.

She heaved in anger. No, she knew he wasn’t the only one. Ned believed in her. Her school believed in her. A lot of people believed that Spider-Man was a hero. He was just saying that to try to get things on his side. He didn’t actually know any of that, and he couldn’t even get her age right!

“I’m 15.” She asserted as she stopped moving back and stood her ground.

“No, this is where you ZIP IT, alright?! The adult is talking!” He scolded her loudly, genuinely scaring her. She wanted to say she hadn’t seen this side of him before, but that wasn’t true. Last time she saw him this way, Captain America was the one on the receiving end.

“What if someone had died tonight?” Tony asked, “Different story, right? Because that’s on _you_. And if you died...I feel like that’s on me. I can’t have that on my conscious.”

Petra’s cheeks turned hot. So this was about him, after all. This wasn’t about what she _could_ do. This was about what he _wanted_ her to do, all this time. She mumbled through her choked voice, “I’m sorry, sir, and I understand-”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it.” He cut her off. His words felt like chains on her body, trying to keep her in place.

“If you called the FBI, why didn’t you tell me?!” She argued, running her palms down her face in frustration.

“I tried to, but then you _rudely_ hung up on me after lying to me.” Tony said crossing his arms.

“Because I was this close to catching them because I wanted to stop them!” Petra explained, letting her tears fall again, “Because I wanted to be like you!”

“And I wanted you to be better.” Tony said coldly as he looked away from her.

Petra felt the ice stab her in the gut, the pain pushing through her veins until she became numb to it. Her face dropped into a stoic stare. Without the hurt, her mind was finally able to click some things into place.

“Is this why you won’t tell me why the Avengers left?” Petra asked quietly, “Did they leave because of the Accords or-”

“I’m going to give you one second to rethink what you’re about to say.” Tony ordered as he talked over her.

“-Or did they leave because of you?” Petra said. Tony hissed and rubbed his mouth.

Petra slammed her hand over the emblem on her chest. The suit fell unceremoniously off her body, leaving her in her basics. She stepped out of it and bundled it up into a messy roll and pushed it into his chest. She had nothing left to say to him.

She walked off the rooftop and stuck the landing to the ground level, walking towards home.


	18. Back on the Ground

Pits formed in Petra’s stomach and limbs during the walk home as she came down from her fury and realized what she’d just done. She yelled at Iron Man, gave up the suit, and gave up her chance to be an Avenger. The pedestal was officially broken, and she felt her dreams go with it. She had to take the shortcut down Broadway barefoot in her Hello Kitty dance shorts and “I Heart NY” camisole as she blubbered hopelessly.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart! You’ll get the next audition!” A random guy on the street shouted at her.

It was enough to make her smile through her tears. Who would have guessed that some bystander would be more comforting than Iron Man at a time like this? By the time she got home, her face was no longer red and her eyes were just slightly puffy. She didn’t have her key on her since her plan was to climb through the window and she couldn’t do that without her disguise, so she had to knock on her own door.

“Oh Thank God!” Aunt May hugged Petra as soon as she opened the door, pulling her in and then shutting it behind them.

“You scared me so bad…” Aunt May was in tears as she squeezed her tightly and then grabbed her arms, “I’ve been calling you all day, and you didn’t answer your phone. You can’t do that to me.”

“I know and I’m sorry…” Seeing Aunt May cry was making Petra cry all over again.

“Then this ferry thing happens…!” Aunt May let go of her to pace around the living room, “I’ve called five police stations! Five! I called your Decathlon team, I called Ned’s mother-!”

“Aunt May, I’m okay. It’s gonna be okay, I’m fine.” Petra tried to get her to calm down.

“Un-uh.” Aunt May faced her and gestured, “Cut the bullshit. I know you skipped school today. I know you lied to your coach about being on your period. I know you sneak out of this house every night. And before today, I let it go because I know you’ve been through a lot and you need to handle it your own way, but now it’s not fine. I can’t even think about the chance that I might lose you.”

“I’m...I’m just sorry, May…” Petra couldn’t even look at her Aunt, she felt so ashamed. When she actually thought about how it must have felt for her to see a freak accident and call her loved one only for them to not pick up the phone, she sobbed and realized she made her go through the same dread she did not just when Uncle Ben died, but when Petra’s parents died, too.

May sat on the couch and pulled Petra into her chest so she could hush her quietly and rub her back. “It’s okay, sweetie, it’s okay. Just lay it all out. Tell me what’s going on. It’s just you and me.”

  
After a few minutes, Petra felt soothed enough to draw her face out and confess to Aunt May, “I quit the Stark Internship.”

“What?” May asked in disbelief, “You _quit?_ ”

“Yeah.” Petra mumbled as she wiped her cheek.

“What happened?” May asked soothingly.

“I just...I thought I could work really hard and he could...he would, but he just…” Petra choked on the lump in her throat, “It just wasn’t what I thought it would be…”

“It’s okay…It’s okay…” May rubbed her back some more.

“I’m sorry I made you worry.” Petra apologized again and Aunt May kissed the top of her head.

“You know I’m not trying to ruin your life. I used to sneak out, too…” Aunt May ruffled through her hair and sniffed it, “And you need to take a shower. You smell like garbage.”

“I know.” Petra finally smiled again, and got up to take a shower.

* * *

  
At school the next day, she had to report to Principal Morita’s office first thing in the morning. Luckily, he told her she was a good and smart kid and he let her off easy with a week’s worth of detention. When she left, Ned was waiting for her.

“Are you expelled? Do you have to go to that high school on 46th where the principal has a crossbow?” He asked.

“Pretty sure that’s an urban myth, and no, I’m not expelled.” Petra told him.

“You’re so lucky.” Ned said.

“Ned…” Petra felt it was easier to tell him sooner rather than later, “I gave up the suit.”

“What?!” He shout-whispered as they walked through the hallway, “You mean, you’re not gonna be Spider-Man anymore?”

“No, I didn’t- I mean...I don’t know. But I’m not interning with Tony Stark anymore.” Petra explained.

“I saw the thing with the Ferry. It looked really bad.” Ned said.

“Can we please just not talk about it?” Petra said.  
“Fine…” Ned looked disappointed, but he added, “...Although, at least you won’t be in danger anymore. It would kind of suck if you died. You are my best friend, after all.”

Petra warmed up to that, and bit her tongue as she joked, “Don’t you mean your girrrlfriend?”

“Ugh, stop.” Ned chuckled, “That rumor is so last Tuesday.”

“Awww, that’s disappointing.” Petra nudged him, “I thought we could at least put on a big break up fight before Homecoming...agh! Homecoming!”

“What? I thought we weren’t going? We didn’t last year.” Ned said.

“Yeah, but...I kind of want to this year.” Petra said as she squeezed her backpack straps.

“You want to ask Liz.” Ned understood.

“Yeah, but...I don’t know how.” Petra bit her thumbnail, “Shoot, I threw out like 90% of my confidence with that suit.”

“C’mon, that’s not true.” Ned encouraged her, “Just ask her.”

“It’s not that simple.” Petra shook her head, “Even if I say ‘Hey do you want to go the dance’ she’ll probably think I want to go as friends and not as like an actual date.”

“Well, then tell her it’s a date.” Ned said.

“Ughhh, you don’t get it, Ned!” Petra groaned, “It’s just...it’s too hard.”

* * *

  
With her Avengers prospects in the dust, Petra had to focus on her real life again, which meant she had to make up that Spanish quiz and get her extra-curriculars in order again, since college was back on the table. So she went back to hitting the books. Over the next week, she participated more in class to get the teachers back on her side, studied during lunch, rebuilt the Lego Death Star with Ned, and remained on her best behavior during detention, even during the incredibly cheesy “Rappin’ with Cap” videos.

“So...you got detention.” Cap said on the screen as he flipped a chair around to sit on it backwards, “You screwed up. You know what you did was wrong, but the question is, How are you going to make things right?”

Petra rolled her eyes as the irony and muttered to herself, “I don’t, how do we? Iron Man can’t stand either of us now.”

Petra thought she saw Michelle out of the corner of her eye, and had to double take to notice her.

“How long have you been there?” Petra asked.

“I come here every week.” Michelle said and held up her sketchbook, “I like to sketch people in crisis.”

Petra saw a crude caricature of a crying girl that was supposed to be her and said sarcastically, “That’s very flattering.”

As Petra sat near Michelle, she remembered how Michelle helped her out when she was trying to figure out what to wear for Liz’s party. This was more than just the next step forward but it was worth a shot.

“Hey Michelle…” Petra whispered, “How does one girl...ask another girl...to Homecoming...and make it very clear it’s a date.”

Michelle looked up from her sketchbook with surprised eyes, “Hmm, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it.”

Petra dropped her chin on her desk in a dejected sigh, “So you don’t know either?”

“If anything, I would have asked you that.” Michelle said as she turned the page of her notebook, “Since you talk to more girls than I do.”

“I do?” Petra asked, “But I only talk to like...Liz, you, Sally, Cindy and Betty.”

“Yeah, and I don’t talk to Cindy.” Michelle said nonchalantly, “She puts me off.”

“But you talk to Liz more than I do, so…” Petra asked, “How do I talk to Liz?”

“Look, Liz already thinks you’re adorable. Ask her however you want, you’ll probably be fine.” Michelle responded.

Petra was taken aback, but it gave her the confidence she needed in that moment. She didn’t want to lose it, so she asked Coach Wilson if she could use the restroom. Her plan was to get her phone out of her locker and call Liz, but on her way there, she saw her as she passed by the trophy display case.

“Hey,” Petra caught her before she left, “I thought Decathlon didn’t need to meet on Thursdays anymore. I thought you’d be home already.”

“Yeah, I’m just doing some Homecoming stuff…” Liz said casually as walked closer to her. Seeing her approach made Petra’s heartbeat flutter.

“So, look, first of all, I just wanted to apologize about the whole Decathlon thing, and-” Petra started.

“It’s fine,” Liz assured her, “Last week, Decathlon was the most important thing, but then I almost died.”

“No, I just mean-” Petra gathered what she’d been trying to say for a while, “It’s not just the Decathlon thing. I’m also sorry...for the sleepover thing.”

Liz actually had to go through her memory to remember what she was talking about, “You mean...from two years ago?”

“Yeah, I…” Petra took a deep breath before she continued, “You were so nice to invite me and I was having a great time, but then I just...I don’t know, I couldn’t handle it and I bailed. And I think the same thing happened with Decathlon. I said I could do it for you, and then I just...I let you down. So, I’m sorry.”

“Petra…” Liz touched her shoulder, “You don’t have to be sorry for the sleepover. If anything, I’m the one who should apologize to you. You went through something horrible, and I thought that a little fun could make you feel better, but I actually just pressured you into trying to fit in with some older girls who had no idea what you’d been through, and you just had to act like you were fine, even though-”

“So wait, you were never mad about that?” Petra asked.

“No, of course not! Why would I be mad? It wasn’t your fault.” Liz said.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me over it. I mean, outside of Decathlon, you never...brought anything up.” Petra said.

“I thought I was giving you your space.” Liz chuckled, “Wow, I’m so sorry, I thought _you_ were mad at _me_.”

“Oh my God, I feel so stupid now!” Petra covered her mouth as she laughed

“Noo, no, please don’t feel stupid.” Liz said comfortingly.

Petra had to gather herself again to prepare for the real conversation, “Anyway, now that that’s cleared up...I was going to ask you something...about Homecoming... “

Liz smiled, “I’m listening.”

“Are you...going?” Petra asked, looking down at her feet and swirling her hair between her fingers, “I mean like I know you’re on the committee so like you’re totally going, but I mean like are you going with anyone as like your date or something?”

“Actually…” Liz swayed, “I’ve been so busy planning it, I never actually got around to that part.”

Petra’s cheeks reddened with warmth, “Oh...so do you...want to go with me?”

Liz smiled and licked her lips, “Yeah, sure.”

“Really?” Petra was so excited it was giving her the shakes, “T-Thank you! I mean… Cool, I’ll see you then.”

“Cool.” Liz said.

“I actually...have to get back to detention now, so later!” Petra walked away in a rush, but then stopped herself and skidded back to Liz to clarify something, “Oh, just to make something clear, you know this is a date thing right? Not a friend thing?”

“Oh yeah, I know.” Liz nodded and waved her hand.

“Great!” Petra’s voice went high, and she hustled back to detention, muffling her squeals into her palms.


	19. The Homecoming Dance

Petra’ s heart raced all day before the dance. She didn’t actually have a plan for when Liz said yes. In her fantasy, it was Spider-Man taking Liz to the dance, showing up to her front door with a tux over the suit with a corsage in hand. Now, she didn’t even know if she was supposed to get a corsage. Technically, Petra was the one who asked her out, so she should be the one to do the “guy” things right?

“What should I even wear?!” Petra asked Aunt May as she paced around the room, “Should I wear slacks? Should I wear a dress? Will it look like a friend thing if I wear a dress? But if I want to wear slacks I’ll have to go out and get slacks within the next 20 minutes so I can come back in time to do my make up. I can do make-up with slacks, right? Like I can pull it off? And my hair? Should I gel it? Ugghhh, there needs to be another set of school dance traditions specifically for lesbians!”

“Look, forget traditions, just wear whatever looks good. Liz is a nice girl, she’ll like whatever you wear.” Aunt May told her.

“Exactly, May, she’s so nice. Like all the time, she’s super nice to everyone, so if I look stupid, she wouldn’t have the heart to tell me.” Petra threw herself on the couch and then jumped right back up, “You know what? I’m not even gonna stress on it. Little black dress. I’ll just wear that.”

“Can’t go wrong with the classics.” Aunt May said.

Petra slipped into her spaghetti-stringed black dress with the bubble skirt. She put a small velvet bowtie choker around her neck and slicked her hair back as far as she could and rolled the ends up. She decided to be bold and go with the red lipstick and darker eyeshadow. She considered putting a flower in her hair, but then opted not to, instead putting in on her bodice where the boutonniere would go. She chose her Aunt May’s nice perfume over her flowery body sprays.

On the way to Liz’s house, they picked up a corsage and went over the basic etiquette of school dances. Petra blew a few puffs air as she walked out of the car and walked around in a circle to gather up her nerves. It should be no trouble seeing her parents. She remembered the mom clearly from the sleepover, but the details were fuzzy on the dad. Everything after her little meltdown was a blur. She walked up the steps and rang the doorbell.

The man who opened the door shocked her in two ways. She recognized him as the man on the boat who wore the Vulture suit, and she finally remembered that he was Liz’s father. The air left her body.

“Hey! Long time, no see! Petra, right?” The man asked jovially as he held his hand out to shake her hand.

“Yes...Hello, sir.” Petra answered timidly as she took it and shook.

“Haven’t seen you since Liz’s sleepover. Man, when was that? A year ago? Oof, hell of a grip.”

“Um, I-I think it was two years ago…?” Petra stuttered and squeezed the corsage container as she felt him inspecting her. Did he know who she was? How could she walk into this house when he might very well kill her? He didn’t leave her much of a choice as he pulled her in while he was still holding her hand. She stood awkwardly in front of the doorway.

“Don’t be shy, come on in.” He waved his hand in a friendly gesture as walked towards the kitchen. As she walked slowly behind him, she tried to dig into her memory to figure out why she didn’t remember him immediately.

_Petra called her Uncle Ben, but he didn’t pick up. She called again. No answer._

“Hi, Petra!” Liz’s mom greeted her as she passed by her, catching her off-guard, “You look very beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Petra said politely as she drew her hands behind her back. She watched Liz’s mom talk to the dad. Did she know he was the Vulture? She didn’t act like she did. As they talked, he seemed so normal, not like the crazy criminal she knew at all.

“I’m going to go get Liz.” Liz’s mom said as she walked away, leaving Petra alone with the dad again.

Petra looked at him to watch what he would do in case she needed to defend herself.

“You alright, Petra?” He said as he casually held up a kitchen knife, “Because you look a little pale.”

She straightened her back and widened her eyes.

“You want something to drink? Bourbon, or Scotch?” He asked.

“I’m not old enough to drink.” She said shaking her head.

He pointed the knife at her, “That’s the right answer.”

Then, he looked behind her with an awed look and said, “Wow.”

Petra turned around to see Liz coming forward in a pink short-sleeved dress.

“Wow wow wow, you look beautiful.” Her dad said.

“Please don’t embarrass me, dad.” Liz said with a blush as she walked up to Petra.

“Doesn’t she, Petra?” He asked her.

“Yeah…” Petra said shyly, “You...you look really good.”

“Once again, that’s the right answer.” He said to her.

“Is that a corsage?” Liz asked as she saw the plastic box in Petra’s hand.

“Y-yeah.” Petra muttered.

“Cool, I got you one, too. Just in case, I didn’t know if you were going to wear the boutonniere or not, and since...you are, I guess you don’t have to if you don’t-” Liz said as she pulled a corsage off the kitchen table.

“No, I want to. Thank you.” Petra said in squeaky voice as she handed her her own box while taking the one from Liz and putting it on her wrist while maintaining eye contact with the Vulture.

“Well hey, I’m the chauffeur, so let’s get this show on the road.” He said.

“No, no no no, we have to take some pictures, babe.” Liz’s mom said as she grabbed the camera off of the table and gestured them to move closer together, “Okay, come on you guys.”

Liz stood by Petra’s side. Petra was still in too much of a daze to smile. This was too surreal. After Liz’s mom took a few pictures, Petra looked down at her fingers and told her dad,

“Sir, you don’t have to drive us.”

“No, no, it’s not a big deal.” He waved it off as he grabbed his jacket, “I’m going out of town. It’s right on my way.”

“He’s always going.” Liz’s mom said casually before hugging Liz and telling her to have fun.

Petra watched the Vulture kiss his wife goodbye like he had nothing to hide.

“Come on, Petra.” He said so nicely.

_“Come on, Petra. I’ll take you home.” He said in a sweet paternal voice. She felt too ashamed to look up at his face._

Petra followed quickly behind them and sat in the back with Liz. They were quiet for most of the drive to the school. This all felt so familiar. The car. The lingering silence between her and Liz’s dad. Liz took some selfies and included Petra in a couple for Instagram and Snapchat.

“What are you gonna do, Petra?” Vulture asked.

“What?” She jolted. Was he going to address this here and now? In front of Liz?

“When you graduate. What do you think you’re gonna do?” He asked more specifically.

“Oh, um...I...I don’t know.” Petra shrugged.

“Don’t grill her, Dad.” Liz defended her.

“Just saying, you know. All you guys that go to that school pretty much have your life planned out, right?” He said.

“Yeah. No, I’m- I’m just a sophomore.” Petra said quietly.

“Petra has an internship with Tony Stark!” Liz said proudly for her, “So I think she doesn’t have to worry.”

“Really? Stark?” He said, like he was starting to put the pieces together, “What do you do?”

Petra needed to shut this down immediately, “Actually, I don’t intern there anymore.”

“Seriously?” Liz asked in surprise.

“Yeah...it got boring.” Petra chuckled as she lied.

“It was boring?” Liz said in disbelief, “You got to hang out with Spider-Man.”

Petra broke out into a sweat as Liz brought that up.

“Really? Spider-Man? Wow, what’s he like?” Her father perked up, which made Petra tense up even more. Liz really needed to stop talking about this, but Petra couldn’t explain to her why.

“Yeah, he’s nice. He’s a nice man. Solid dude.” Petra didn’t want to emphasize “man” too much without raising more suspicions, “...but Mr. Stark was kind of...a tool.”

“Hah, doesn’t surprise me there.” Vulture laughed.

“Really?!” Liz asked in surprise, “What did he do? Did something happen?”

“No, no. Nothing in particular _happened_. It’s just he’s so unavailable all the time, but he expected me to be available all the time, and even when he did show up it was only to point out what I was doing wrong and it was like that overshadowed everything I was doing right, you know?” Petra vented.

“Oh, I totally get you.” Liz said, “And yeah. You were super busy like all the time. You quit all your clubs and you were only at my party for like two seconds.”

“Uh...Uh, I’m sure I was there for...more than two seconds.” Petra stuttered.

“You disappeared.” Liz said.

“No, well…” Petra had to turn this conversation around as she could feel Vulture’s eyes peering through the rear mirror, “Okay, I stormed off for a bit, but that’s only because I got into a fight with Ned and then I heard Ned got into a fight with Flash.”

“Oh My God, it was like _so_ crazy!” Liz exclaimed, “Like were you two really dating or was that a rumor?”

“It was just a rumor. We just got into a friend fight because Ned was being like super dumb. Haha, I don’t even remember what that fight was about.” Petra tried to play up the ditzy angle to ward Vulture off of her, and she prayed it was working.

“It really is good to see you again, Petra.” The Vulture spoke up, “I haven’t seen you since I drove you home after the sleepover.”

“You…” Petra’s voice shook, “You drove me home? I thought...because I called my uncle-”

“Your uncle couldn’t make it, remember?” He explained, “You called him and he said he was really sorry but he couldn’t leave work. I, on the other hand, had just come back from work, so I took you home.”

“That’s...that is what happened...right.” Petra’s eyes glazed over as she finally remembered.

_She called Uncle Ben again and again, but when he finally picked up, he said that he had already agreed to take someone else’s night shift at work, and he was stuck. So Petra hung up. She drew even further into herself, and the room started spinning as she felt her body tingle in pain. She could hear the other girls whispering at the other end of the door. Her mind assumed the worst, that they were mocking her, calling her a crybaby that was ruining the party. Her tears grew thicker and warmer and blurred her vision. She was frozen in a huddle against the bathroom door. Until finally, Liz’s mom came over and sweetly told her to open the door because Liz’s father was going to give her a ride home. So she got up and she walked out, still crying as she felt utterly defeated. She avoided everyone’s gaze on the way out. She didn’t even look up to see the dad’s face in person. She just remembered his voice telling her to get in the car and that she was going to be okay._

  
“I never did thank you for that, did I?” Petra said.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I like doing this kind of thing for you kids.” He said. And Petra could tell that he meant it. He really did love his wife, and he especially loved Liz. So how could he risk all that to be a criminal who sells deadly weapons?

When they finally arrived in front of the school, he said, “Here we are. End of the line.”

“Thanks, Dad!” Liz said cheerily as she unbuckled herself.

“You head in there, gumdrop.” Vulture told her in a goofy day way, “I’m gonna give Petra ‘the dad talk.’”

“Really? But it’s-” She gave up and turned to Petra, “Don’t let him intimidate you.”

“Love you.” She said as she kissed her dad on the cheek.

“Love you too, gumdrop.”

“Have a safe flight.” Liz said before leaving Petra alone with him in the car.

She clutched her knees tightly, sweat falling down her temples, and it only got worse when the Vulture rested his arm behind the seat, brandishing the gun in his hand. He looked at her sadly and sternly.

“Does she know?” He asked in his low, villainous voice.

“Know what?” Petra backed into her seat nervously.

“So she doesn’t. Good.” He said. It was no use. He knew who she was, and frankly, it wasn’t enough to stop him, “Close to the vest. I admire that. I got a few secrets of my own.”

“Of the reasons I didn’t want my daughter to date.” He shrugged and slyly smiled, “Petra...I know what you went through. Liz told us about it when it happened. And I gotta be honest, I wanted to cry when I heard it. You didn’t deserve that. You were just a kid. You’re _still_ just a kid.”

Petra felt herself shrink into the seat. No. He wasn’t supposed to know that. How dare he know about that and bring it up to her, especially now.

“And you’re a brave kid, but you took it too far. However, you saved my daughter’s life, and I could never forget something like that. So I will give you one chance.” He continued, “Are you ready? You walk through those doors, forget any of this happened, and just live your life. And don’t you ever interfere with my business again. Because if you do, I _will_ kill you and everyone that you love. I’ll kill you dead. That’s what I’ll do to protect my family, Petra. Do you understand?”

Petra looked down as she shook in fear and anger, unable to face him directly.

“Hey,” He said sternly, “I’m doing this to protect you. You’re not meant for that kind of world. So I just saved your life. Now what do you say?”

She finally looked up and said calmly, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He said with a nod, “Now you go in there and show my daughter a good time. Okay? Just not too good.”

Petra opened the door to let herself out and weakly shut it behind her and watched him drive off. She knew he was going to steal and sell more weapons. She couldn’t enjoy herself at the party knowing that was going to happen. Even if she reminded herself that she didn’t have Mr. Stark’s advanced suit and everything that came with it, that didn’t take the weight off of her shoulders. If she did as the Vulture said and stayed at this dance and people died tonight, she would have to live the rest of her life knowing she could have done something to stop it.

She walked up the steps to the school slowly, zoned out as the music and laughter around her faded into a distant murmur. She walked towards Liz, who was already having a good time dancing with her friends.

Liz noticed her approaching and saw the dazed look on her face, “Hey...what did he say to you?”

When Petra’s face turned white with fear, Liz looked concerned.

“I gotta go.” Petra muttered, “I’m so sorry.”

She knew she was disappointing Liz once again, and it killed her to see her look so shocked and confused, but Petra couldn’t ignore the threat at hand.

“You don’t deserve this.” Petra told her before she dashed out of the auditorium.


	20. The Rubble

Petra ran through the darkened hallway towards her secret hiding stash under the lockers for her old homemade suit. It wasn’t fancy, but it was her own. She pulled her web shooters, webbing fluid, and red and blue sweats and dashed into the empty girls’ restroom to change. When she slipped the mask on, she realized the main thing she was going to miss about the Stark suit was Karen. She wondered if the AI was programmed to miss her, too. Although now that she was back with Mr. Stark, he was probably erasing her memory or telling her all about how Petra was irresponsible, disobedient, immature, and probably No.1 on his enemy list. Although that honor probably belonged to Captain America. He had probably already moved on to the next chump with useful powers who would do his bidding without question.

She didn’t have much time, so when she got the suit on, she saved the webshooters for last, trying to slip them on her wrists as she ran out the backdoor of the school towards the busyard. Before she could get then on, however, she got suckerpunched in the face with Shocker’s electrical gauntlet. She rolled across the pavement.

“He gave you a choice.” Shocker said, “You chose wrong.”

“Ugh, what the hell?” She murmured as her goggles squinted at him.

“What’s with the crappy costume?” He snickered as he powered the gauntlet.

“My webshooters…”She whispered to herself as she looked across the ground and spotted them several feet away. She quickly sprinted for them, but the Shocker punched a nearby school bus so that it swung around knocked her directly into another bus, denting the side and shattering the windows.

Shocker kicked her webshooters to the side, “Wasn’t sure about this thing at first, but...Damn.”

As she peeled herself off and tried to unscramble her head, he backhanded so hard, she flew through the windshield of another bus, all the way to the back of it. She groaned as she hit the floor, looking up to see the scattered array of gum under the bus seat right over her face.

“Ugh, gross!” She moaned.

Then, the Shocker punched under the bus to make it roll for about three rotations, tumbling her around like laundry. Once it was on its side, she was able to crawl out of the emergency hatch, moaning and whimpering as the miniscule shards of glass stung her legs and abdomen.

“Why did he send you here?” She groaned as she tried to crawl back on her feet.

“Guess you’ll never know.” He said as he was about to throw another punch to her body directly. She instinctively guarded herself, but the punch didn’t come. She peeked over her arms to see webbing pulling on the gauntlet. She found Ned on the other end, holding her webshooter.  
“Nice shot!” She exclaimed in relief. She finally got the upper hand and pulled on the webbing herself, flinging his gauntlet off his arm and the webshooter towards herself. She slipped it on and instantly webbed the Shocker to the side of the bus, trapping him like a bug.

“Yes!” She cheered to herself before running over to her partner-in-crime, “Ned, the guy with the wings is Liz’s _dad!”_

“What?!” Ned dropped his jaw.

“I know, I gotta tell Mr. Stark!” Petra explained quickly to him. Even if he was mad at her, this was more important, “Call Happy Hogan. He’s Mr. Stark’s head of security, and get a computer and track my phone for me.”

“Are you gonna be okay?” Ned asked as she started to swing away.

“Hurry! We gotta catch him before he leaves town!” She shouted before she left the busyard. She wasn’t going to make it by swinging alone. She needed a vehicle, so she landed on the first one coming towards the school, which just so happened to the person she’d feel the least guilty about carjacking. She also wished she had interrogation mode back, but she did her best making her own voice deep and scratchy.

“Flash.” She demanded gutterally, “I need your car and your phone.”

Flash screamed when she landed and then stuttered nervously while looking up at the intimidating figure, “Uh, sir, t-technically this is my dad’s car sir, so I can’t-”

_“Now!”_

Within ten seconds, Flash and his date were out of the car, and Petra was driving away in his shiny silver Audi. She wasn’t very good at making turns, but she didn’t feel guilty about hitting the bike rack on the way out of the parking lot. Luckily since they were in Decathlon together, Flash already had Ned in his contacts for emergencies, but it took her awhile to discover he was labeled as “Fat Nerd Boy” with the nerd emoticon. When she had a moment to spare, she would have to remember to change it to “Sexy Mofo” before she gave it back to Flash. She was also going to have to check what her number was labeled as.

“Hello, Ned? Hey, hey, hey, can you hear me?” She asked in a frenzy as she tried to talk and drive at the same time.

“Go for Ned.” He said.

“Ned, I need you to track my phone for me.” She instructed.

“Yeah, but where is it?” He asked.

“I left it in his car.” She said.

“Genius move. Okay, he just passed the GameStop on Jackson Avenue.” Ned told her.

“Hey, where are the headlights on this thing?!” She exclaimed as she kept her hands on the wheel but needed to figure out which switch to turn, “I’m in Flash’s car!”

“I’ll pull up the specs.” Ned said.

“Okay you’re on speakerphone.” She shouted over the rush of cars as she pressed the button and dropped the phone into the passenger seat.

“You stole Flash’s car? Awesome.”

“Yeah, it’s awesome, it’s awe-Nnnnghh!” She groaned as she narrowly swerved away from a bus turning into her lane, “Get out of the way, get out of the way! Move!”

“Petra, are you okay?”

“I’ve never really driven before. Only with May in parking lots.” She confessed, “This is a huge step up. Hey, have you gotten through to Happy yet?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m working on it, I just gotta backdoor the phone system.” He said.

She continued making her way towards the GameStop, but it was hard to see the lane markings without the lights.

“Hey Ned, how we coming on with those headlights?” She asked.

“Uh...round knob to the left of the steering wheel, turn clockwise.” He told her.

“Okay,” She did as he said and the lights came on, “Okay, perfect. So where’s my phone now?”

“He stopped in an old industrial park in Brooklyn.”

“What? That makes no sense!” She responded as she swerved into wrong lanes, “I thought he said he was going out of town!”

“Weird. Oh, I reached Mr. Happy, don’t think he likes you very much by the way. It sounded like he was catching a flight. He said something about taking off in nine minutes.”

“What?!”

“He was surrounded by a bunch of boxes.”

“Boxes?” She gasped as she remembered what he told her he was doing, “It’s moving day...It’s moving day! _It’s moving day!_ He’s gonna rob that plane, I gotta stop him!”

Petra followed Ned’s instructions on where to turn to find the industrial park.

“Okay slow down, you’re getting close, it’s on your right.”

“What?”

“Turn right! Turn right!”

She missed her turn, so she shot out her webbing to catch the lightpost and pull her back, but the whole car moved with her, skidding on its side against the road. She braced for it to flip over, but luckily it fell right back on the wheels as it stopped.

“Petra! Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” She panted as she jumped out of the car, “Just keep trying to get through to Happy.”

“It’s been an honor, Spider-Man.”

She hung up and left the phone behind. She walked into the dark warehouse that reeked of oil and rust. She heard echoes of tinkering through the metal hallways towards the back. She walked on light feet and swung down the staircase. She finally spotted him on a workbench with his back faced to her.

“Hey!” She called out, “Surprised?!”

“Oh hey, Petra.” He said nicely as he looked at her, with the tone of voice he used as Liz’s father, not as the Vulture, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“It’s over, I’ve got you!” She told him as she marched towards him.

“You know, I gotta tell ya, sweetheart, I really _really_ admire your grit.” He said as he put his jacket on and leaned against the table, “You know, I’ve never seen Liz go out with girls before, but after meeting you, I see why Liz likes you. Like, _actually_ into you. I mean, when you first came over to the house, I wasn’t sure. I thought she was just going with you to be nice, but I get it now.”

“How could you do this to her?” Petra asked, with trembling lips and watering eyes. She stopped in her tracks. She didn’t want to hurt him, not only because he was Liz’s father, but because he was there for her at that vulnerable time. She didn’t understand how he could be both a caring person while putting so many people in danger just for money.

“To her? I’m not doing anything to her, Petra, I’m doing this for her.” He asserted.

“Un-huh. Yeah.” She muttered as she webbed his hand to the table to keep him from going anywhere. He didn’t even look surprised, he just sighed and continued in his fatherly voice.

“Sweetie...you’re young.” He said, “You don’t understand how the world works.”

“Yeah, but I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong.” She stated like it was supposed to obvious, frustrated that he was belittling her.

“How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower or any of his little toys?” He asked her, “Those people, Petra, those people up there? The rich and the powerful? They do whatever they want. Guys like us? Like you and me?” He shrugged, “They don’t care about us. We build their roads, and we fight all their wars and everything, but they don’t _care_ about us. We have to pick up after them, we have to eat their table scraps. That’s how it is.”

“So you’re doing this to get rich and powerful.” Petra said, “And I’m just supposed to be okay with that?”

“I’m doing this to survive. I know you know what I’m talking about. You said so in the car. You left Stark because he was treating you like a lap dog, making you think that you could be like him, be the next Iron Man even, but he was just using you all along. You realized that he never actually cared about you.” Vulture told her, which stung her deep.

“Why...are you telling me this?” She asked, trying to hide the lump in her voice. She hadn’t expected him to reach that far.

“Because I think we can understand each other. It took a lot of guts to give up Stark and the fancy suit. A lot. I admire that. And since your plans for the future didn’t work out, I figured you’d be looking for new prospects. You’re still a very talented girl, after all. It’d be a waste not to use what you’ve been given.” The Vulture told her, “So I’m giving you another shot. Come work for me. You’d be a big help to team.”

“What?! She exclaimed, “Why would I work for you? What you’re doing is super illegal and super dangerous!”

“So is moonlighting as a superhero in your pajamas outside of the Accords.” He said, holding his arm out, “We both know we gotta break the law sometimes, sweetheart.”  
“Call me sweetheart one more time.” She threatened as she threw her finger towards him, “I will never work for you. I won’t stop until you’re in prison. I don’t care whose dad you are.”

He tsked and shook his head, “I’m sorry to hear that, Petra. I really didn’t want to do this, but…”

He flicked a switch on a remote control she didn’t see he had up his sleeve. Suddenly, his wings flew behind her, trying to mow her down, but she flipped up and out of the way. While she was distracted, he cut himself free of her webbing. The wings glided by her at several angles, but she dodged them every time, making it crash into different concrete beams. Finally, she landed on top of it and sent it crashing into the wall.

“You have one last chance to run, Petra. I don’t want to hurt you.” The Vulture said.

Petra jumped out of the way as the wings came back again, circling around.

“What are you talking about? That thing hasn’t even touched me yet!” She boasted.

“True, but then again…” He said with no joy in his voice, “It wasn’t really trying to.”

When she looked at the wings’ pattern, she noticed it was crashing into the beams _on purpose_. And every structure it hit made the floor above them weaker and weaker. And once the last beam was split in half, the thick layering of concrete and steel collapsed. She tried to run out of the way, but it was too late. She felt a hard slab of concrete hit her back and knock her to the ground. Then, layers of rocks and metal layered over it, knocking her head until she was too muddled to focus and burying her. Every time she tried to move, more rubble kept crashing around her, crashing against the floor, making her sink even further.

Vulture took his leave, but not before giving one last sorrowful look at where she once stood.

She was on the brink of passing out, unable to breath, with her chest crushed between two jagged slabs of concrete. She pulled her mask off to make it easier to breath, but she was still getting light-headed. She felt her throat clog up as the anxiety took over. She tried to push against the rocks, but her legs weren’t able to move with her. As the concrete shifted, it only added more weight on her chest and tried to pin her arms down. She couldn’t move.

She was frozen.

Tears flowed out of her beyond her control as she screamed, “Hello?! Hellooo!”

She tried to push herself up again, but the weight was too much for her arms alone. Also, the crying and shivering just made her strength disappear.

“Please! Hey! I’m down here!” She cried out, hoping anyone was listening. That someone would come to help her, “Please, I’m down here! I’m stuck! I can’t move! I can’t _move!”_

Only silence. No one was coming. The jagged edges of solid concrete poked against her back, reminding her of the gun that Uncle Ben’s killer pressed against her, before she let him get away and murder Uncle Ben. The Vulture was going to get away doing who knows what to that plane, and she would be stuck on the ground, just like there was nothing she could do to stop her parents’ plane from crashing. And her body was being crushed under a weight that overpowered her, just like when…

“No…” She moaned, as a fire burned inside of her stomach and traveled through her whole body, “NOO!!!”

Her legs finally mustered the strength to curl and support her back, and she placed her hands directly under the concrete on top of her. She could do this. Because Spider-Man was just that strong, or actually...it was Petra Parker who was that strong.

She gained her footing and braced herself, straightening her back as she pushed up with her arms. She gave a strained yell as she lifted the concrete off of herself. She breathed heavily as she pushed herself harder. Harder and harder, until she pushed the biggest slabs off the side, setting herself free. She grabbed her mask and crawled out of the rubble, standing on solid ground once again.


	21. Carried Off

She saw the Vulture perched on the blank billboard close to the wreckage of the warehouse. He was staring off into the skyline, waiting for a certain plane to take off. She ran towards him, but then she saw his wings spread and heard the motors run. She couldn’t afford to lose him, so she webbed the grid of the billboard and pulled herself towards him, leaping off of the metal frame and catching the launchpack on his back by a long web, trailing under him. When he looked back to check to see if anything was on him, she swung from side to side to stay out of his view.

When he shot up vertically, she felt a massive rush in her stomach like going up a rollercoaster. She didn’t want to make too much noise, but the rush of the wind was able to hide her squeals of fear. Even when he dragged her up last time, he didn’t take her this high. And without Mr. Stark’s suit, she didn’t have a parachute if she fell.

“Oh my God, Oh my God…” She said to herself as they flew close enough to the plane to touch the cloaked surface, and she clung to the underside of the plane for dear life. She watched Vulture place purple glowing pads in an arrangements and slip through the opening it made, detaching from his wings. She tried to web herself closer, but the strings just got caught in the wind. The velocity was also too rough for her adhesive limbs, and she would have slipped away if she hadn’t webbed herself to the surface.

She had to crawl against the hurricane levels of wind to reach the wings he parked on the outside. If she managed to unhook those, he would be trapped and easily caught. She tried fiddling with mechanisms, but it was firmly planted into the skin of the plane. Then,she saw a drone pop out of the launchpack and fly out in the same direction that the plane was going before the actual plane swerved off to the side.

She tried to slip her fingers under the wings, but they were sealed too tightly. She carefully arranged herself to face her back to the plane so she could kick it. After a few strong kicks, something shifted. So she kicked harder. She realized the vacuum seal was broken and now things were flying out of the plane. It was enough to catch his attention, which meant her cover was blown and things just got a lot harder.

When she saw his wings spread again, she knew he was back. While he took flight, she crawled to the top of the plane.

“Just a typical Homecoming...on the outside of an invisible jet…” She gasped as the wind almost knocked her off, “...fighting the girl of my dream’s dad!”

When he flew straight towards her, she waited until he was close enough to web herself to him while barely avoiding a straight cut of his wings. She also webbed herself to the plane so that he couldn’t get away, and was being pulled between the two. Both snapped, and she was left suspended in the air for a nerve-wracking quarter of a second.

“Oh God!” She screamed as she instinctively shot her webs to the plane, but then she realized she was pulling herself towards the engines, which would rip her to shreds. She shot out as much webbing as she could before she shut her eyes and landed directly in the propellers.

When she opened her eyes, she was not minced meat after all. She chuckled in relief as she saw the webbing had caught in the engine and brought it to a halt.

“I can’t believe that worked!” She exclaimed, but then the propellers slipped out of their frame and sent her barely dangling behind the plane. Once she got a good grip on the wing, she kicked the engine away towards Vulture who was trying to follow behind her. She crawled back to a stable spot on top of the plane and clung on, but she heard the rush of his wings coming towards her. She rolled out of the way but losing her grip meant slipping down the plane closer to the central engine. Vulture came back, trying to stand on the surface with his wings sliding against the cloaking panels. Each wing moved forward until it cut through her webbing. She barely reattached herself just behind the central engine.

She felt the wind take a downward turn, and when the plane came under the clouds, she realized they were going down and headed right back for the city.

“Oh my God!” She gasped. She webbed the wing closest to her, and stood on her feet. She pulled on the wing with all her strength to try and guide the plane out of the way of the buildings, “Please turn! Please turn!”

The plane circled around, missing most of the skyscrapers, but then the webbing snapped and Petra had to cling to the wing by hand. She looked out and saw the plane would either crash into the Coney Island Park or the beach. The wing took out one of the rides and sent the plane hurtling towards the sand. As the nose hit the ground, the plane itself broke into pieces, exploding on impact. The back flipped over and flung Petra off, screaming as she hit the ground rolling into the sand.

Her body was aching as her back settled into the ground. The explosions made her ears ring, and she could feel the heat of the flames surrounding her. She pulled herself up and took off her mask, and wearily got back on her feet. She barely survived the plane crashing, but this still wasn’t over. She stood up and noticed the flash of metal in the darkness. Before she could react, the Vulture flew towards her and knocked her off her feet again. She could see the sparks hear the grinding gears that told her that his wings were damaged, but they were still functional. She stood back up again as he landed and looked at the green glowing eyes in his helmet as he said in a graveled voice,

“Hey, sweetheart.”

* * *

  
Tony plugged the grid from the Spider suit into the main computer of the lab of the Avengers Compound. If he was going to nail this Vulture guy that kid wouldn’t stop talking about, he’d have to find out everything the kid knew. And since talking to her wasn’t really on the table right now, he’d have to go back through the Baby Monitor to see what she saw.

_“Good evening, Mr. Stark.”_ The peppy voice in her suit greeted him, _“Where’s Petra today?”_

“Yeah, that’s a little hard to explain.” Tony told the AI, “It wasn’t working out, so you won’t be seeing her for a while. She wasn’t even supposed to know about you yet, but she jumped the gun.”

_“Oh, that’s unfortunate. I thought she was making good progress. She even gave me a name.”_

“Did she now?” Tony asked.

_“Yes. She calls me Karen. I think it’s cute.”_

“Geez, sounds like a schoolteacher name. Okay then, _Karen_ ,” Tony said in a mocking tone, “Run back the footage of her little adventure in D.C.”

The footage started from Petra’s view as the Chitauri energy core exploded from inside the Washington Monument.

“Good, now rewind.” Tony said. The footage went in reverse at 8x speed. He saw her extended hitchhiking to the city, all the way back to Damage Control. However, once he got to the part where she hacked the door open with her calculator, which he had to admit was impressive, the footage skipped back to her leaving her hotel room.

“Woah, hey, pause.” He said, “Now just slowly fast forward. Now back, now forward, now back again.”

 

He watched the jump in footage and realized a huge chunk was missing. He asked, “What happened to the recording after she left the room?”

_“I’m sorry, but that footage is unavailable due to sensitive material.”_ Karen told him.

“Sensitive material? Like it’s censored? Did she go streaking or something?”

_“The recording was deleted at her request.”_ Karen explained.

“At her request? Well I’m requesting you put it back.” Tony said sternly.

_“But sir, she deleted it.”_

  
“She can’t delete anything. Go to the main server, extract recycled footage and override the user encryption.” Tony ordered.

_“I don’t think she would like that, sir. She was very insistent.”_ Karen said.

“Well, that’s too bad. She lost her privacy privileges when she went behind my back with my suit and almost got herself killed disobeying my orders. Put that footage back.” Tony said.

_“I strongly discourage it, sir.”_ Karen pleaded.

“Karen, if she recorded anything of the Vulture or his weapons, I need to know about it. Something tells me it won’t end with cutting boats in half. If I don’t know what he’s after, I can’t stop him. So please, show me what happened.” Tony said calmly.

_“...Footage restored.”_

* * *

  
The Vulture flew towards her with his arms reaching out, but she tucked and rolled under him. She tried to web him as he came back around, but she missed. She was still off balance with the ringing in her ears. Then, the talons from his boot extended and trapped her to the ground, digging into her shoulders painfully. As she screamed and tried to beat his foot off of her, he tried to power up his gauntlet and aim it at her head, but it short-circuited.

He flew up in the air with her in tow, but she was able to pull herself free and fall back down. She webbed his foot to hang on to him, but he used the stretching fiber to fling her back in the air. She tried to catch his wings, but he swung her back into the sand. He grabbed her with both talons this time and flew up and down to slam her repeatedly into the ground before he roughly dropped her. She rolled on her back, her head throbbing all the way down to her burning limbs. She was too dizzy and tired to stand. His bent and jagged wing hooked onto her jacket by the neck and pulled her upwards, dangling her in front of him.

“Bingo,” he said. She thought he was going to take his chance to kill her, but he didn’t. He dropped her to the side, took off his mask and flew over to a broken crate of Mr. Stark’s arc reactors. He grabbed it like prey and tried to fly off with it, but she saw that his launchpack was shaking as it was about to combust.

“Your wingsuit…” She warned, “Your wingsuit’s gonna explode!”

He either couldn’t hear her or was ignoring her, because he didn’t even turn around. She raised her aching arm and flexed her fingers to shoot her webbing at the box of arc reactors. She used it to support herself back on her feet and pull against him.

“Time to go home, Petra.” He said calmly to her with a smile.  
“I’m trying to save you!” She shouted.

He cut her webbing with his wings. She tried to shoot another one but she ran empty. She watched him fall back down and disappear behind the wall of flames.

“No.” She whispered. She couldn’t let him die like this, especially not when his family still needed him. She jumped up and ran through the fire, jumping through the flames quick enough to not ignite her clothes. She found the wings planted in the sand, with him trapped under them. They were still hot to the touch, so she worked her hands under it and quickly pushed one wing off to the side, finding him unconscious.

She grabbed his body and threw it over her shoulders in a fireman carry. She dragged him to a safer place on the beach, away from the flames and the smoke before dropping him and rolling on the ground herself. They both coughed and gasped for fresh air as the flames engulfed the rest of the plane. Once she was strong enough to stand, she looked him in the eyes, and he actually looked surprised that she saved his life. He also knew that the jig was finally up.

She ran out of fresh webbing from her shooters, so she had to pick up stray strands from their fight and use them to tie him up to crates he stole.

“Don’t worry about Liz hating you for this, by the way.” She said as she fastened him tightly, “She’ll be angry for a while, but she’ll still love you. I know I would if my dad were still alive.”

The Vulture scoffed, “Don’t expect me to thank you for this.”

“I’m not doing this for approval.” She said as she gave him a quick salute as she walked away, “It’s just my job, because I’m the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

She watched from atop the Cyclone at Coney Island as she waited for someone to find him. She didn’t leave a note, but she was sure the webbing would give it away. Once she saw sirens and trucks come to surround him, she took her leave.


	22. Goodbye

“It looked so insane, that whole...like it was just crazy! He was just like ‘Dssshh’ and you were like ‘Aaaahhh’ and then I just hit him with the ‘fsshhh’ and it was like, Oh my God…” Ned played back the events of the previous night very eloquently, but Petra wasn’t that excited about it.

“I mean, you saved me. That was awesome.” She said quietly before she spotted Liz at the end of the hallway with her mother.

Petra’s stomach tightened in painful knots as she slowly walked her way. She watched Betty tearfully give her a hug and tell her she was going to miss her. Liz’s mother walked away with a box full of Liz’s locker contents. It shattered Petra’s heart to realize that Liz was leaving the school. She thought she would have time to think of a good apology and hopefully gain her trust back for leaving her at the dance, but now she saw this might be her last chance.

She quietly stood around until Betty left and then meekly approached Liz herself, muttering, “Hey, Liz.”

“Hey…” Liz said dejectedly, her eyes red from crying and her arms tucked under each other. It killed Petra to see her this way, but she had to accept last night that this was going to happen.

“Look, I’m so sorry…” Petra took a deep breath and said.

“About the dance?” Liz wiped her eyes, “You don’t have to be...I know you tried your best…”

“I mean...well, yeah, I’m very sorry about that, too, but your dad, I mean...I can’t imagine what you’re going through. If there’s anything I can do to help...” Petra said, which stung the back of her throat. She knew that she couldn’t just let him get away with what he was doing, but she still felt guilty that technically she did this to Liz. No, she had to keep telling herself that Vulture made his own choice, and that he did this to his family, not her.

Surprisingly, Liz hugged her. Her tears muffled her voice as she explained, “I guess we’re moving to Oregon, so…”

Petra hugged her back tightly, her eyes widening with more sorrow. Oregon?! That was on the other side of the country! She thought Liz was just changing schools, she didn’t think she was leaving town!

“That’s so far away…” Petra moaned.

“Mom says it’s nice there, so that’s cool…” Liz said as she pulled away, struggling to stay on the bright side as she usually did, “Anyways, Dad doesn’t want us here during the trial, so…”

She gulped painfully. He was still trying to protect them from the gory details of his criminal life. Petra only caught a snippet of it, but she could tell he had done some terrible things to get to that point, things that Liz wouldn’t want to hear.

“Liz, I…” Petra choked out, “You can call me whenever you want, if you ever just want to talk. I’m here for you.”

“Yeah...thanks.” Liz said sadly.

“Or you don’t have to...that’s okay, I was just-” Petra shuffled her hands in her jacket.

“No, really. Thank you, Petra.” Liz grabbed her hand, which sent shivers down Petra’s spine and made her feel like she would melt on the spot, “Please, don’t become a stranger again...I’m really going to miss you.”

Petra blushed as she saw Liz smile through her sadness. Petra stumbled on her words, “Okay, yeah, sure, of course. I got social media and stuff… I mean like, I made new accounts and stuff, so I’ll follow you.”

“Okay, great.” Liz gave her one more hug and said calmly, “Goodbye, Petra.”

This time, before she pulled away, she gave Petra a peck on the cheek. Petra’s churning stomach turned to butterflies, and she felt the weight off her chest lift like a balloon. As Liz finally walked away to leave for good, she gave her one last wave goodbye.

Petra waved back in a daze, quietly whispering after the doors shut, “Bye, Liz.”

* * *

  
Petra was too emotionally spent to concentrate on the rest of the day. When she checked her phone to follow Liz on Snapchat and Instagram, she saw that she had already posted her goodbye pics, and included their group Decathlon photo. She also considered having the official Spider-Man Insta follow Liz, too as a surprise, but then realized Liz probably didn’t like Spider-Man anymore with him arresting her dad and everything. Being let down by the hero you looked up to, now that was something Petra did know something about.

“Congratulations, Decathlon National Champions.” Mr. Harrington started the practice meeting on the team’s big achievement which made everyone applaud and cheer, “I”m going to have to put this back in the trophy case, soon, but just for motivation now at this practice. I’m a little ahead of the game, but we will need a new team captain next year, so I am appointing...Michelle.”

Petra looked at Michelle, whose head perked up like she was genuinely surprised by it. She smiled as she clapped for her. It made sense, after all. Petra heard that she was the one who gave them the lead score in Super Quiz, scoring a perfect 5 on stage, and she also won the 1st place medal for Speech for her insightful take on how social media has benefited current events by giving people access to the immediate uncensored truth.

“Great job, Michelle.” Petra told her.

“Uh...thank you.” Michelle said, “My friends call me MJ.”

Petra blinked as she was taken aback. She had a nickname? And now they were being trusted with it? That was actually really cool. She blushed as she saw MJ give a warm smile in her direction. Maybe now that she was in charge, MJ would be less mysterious and Petra could get to know her better.

Suddenly, Petra’s phone buzzed. She saw a text from an unknown number that read,

_“Meet me outside.”_

Petra looked confused for a moment until she remembered that while she gave back the suit, Mr. Stark still had her number. He was probably going to tear her a new one for destroying his super fancy invisible plane. Still, she couldn’t be sure, so she texted back,

_“Who is this?”_

_“You know who it is.”_

_“In a meeting.”_

_“It’s important.”_

_“Can’t. TTYL”_

“Do you have somewhere you need to be, Petra?” MJ asked, taking the accusatory tone of a teacher, “Who are you texting like crazy?”

“Uhhh….” Petra stammered as she put her phone on silent and stuffed it in her bag, “No one, it’s nothing.”

MJ broke her stern face into a laugh, “I’m just kidding, I don’t care. Okay, let’s start with some drills.”

“Yeah, cool.” Petra scooted her seat in closer as she pulled out her books and got right back to work with the team.

* * *

  
Petra was still feeling the sting of Liz’s departure as she walked out of the school’s front gates while heading towards the subway. The kiss softened the blow, but she still had to come to term with the fact that she wouldn’t see Liz in person again for a long time. It was like fate pulling a cruel trick on her once again. She and Liz were finally starting to have a real connection, and then it was all just ripped away. At least she could text her and video chat with her. She could tell Liz meant it when she said not to stay a stranger, and Petra swore she wasn’t going to mess it up this time. She’d like all her pictures and comment all the time. Maybe later tonight she would send her a Snap.

As Petra was deep in thought, she didn’t notice the limousine following beside her until the window rolled down and a familiar middle-aged voice called from the driver’s seat, “Hey, kid! Kid!”

Petra stopped and jolted as watched Happy get out of the limo and approach her. She clutched her backpack straps and stepped away.

“C’mon, I’ve been waiting all day.” Happy said, noticing she looked apprehensive, “What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing here, Happy?” Petra asked, still nervous even though Happy didn’t seem as grumpy today.

“Relax, okay? You’re not in trouble.” Happy explained, holding his arm out, “I really owe you one. I really need this job. Before I met Tony-”

“I can’t do this right now.” Petra said as she tried to walk away, “You don’t have to pretend to be nice to me.”

“Pretending? Woah, I’m not- You saved my ass last night.” Happy said, walking behind her.

“Yeah, and you could have saved it yourself if you had taken my friend’s calls.” Petra snapped.

“I know. I’m sorry about that. Look, this isn’t about me, the boss wants to see you.” Happy said, “Let’s go.”

“...No.” Petra said as she continued to move forward.

“No? You’re gonna say no? To Tony?” Happy asked, flabbergasted.

“I don’t want to see him right now.” Petra’s walk turned into a pace.

“I know you guys had a bit of a tiff, but he’s got something very important to talk to you about. He said it’s about the Avengers.” Happy said.

  
Petra stopped for a brief moment, and deeply inhaled. She had already had a rough day, she didn’t have the stomach for that rollercoaster right now.

“I don’t care.” She said as she continued marching.

“C’mon, please just get in the car.”

Petra whipped back and shot her web from under her jacket sleeve. A small net of webbing covered Happy’s face, muffling his mouth.

“Goodbye, Happy.”

While he tried to pull it off, Petra took her chance to sprint up the closest building and roof hop away from him. She knew that Mr. Stark would be double mad now, but that was a risk she had to take. For all she knew, Happy was lying about her not being in trouble as a way to lure her in so she could face Iron Man’s wrath.

When she got home, she walked into her room and a saw a large brown paper bag with writing on it sitting on her bed

_This belongs to you. -TS_

Her body tensed as her paranoid instinct first suspected it of being a bomb. Of course Iron Man couldn’t murder her in person, he’d have to make it look like an unrelated accident. Her mind was racing out of control, so her method of testing if it was a bomb was to grab a book off her desk and throw it at the bag to see if it exploded. The paper bag just fell over and she suddenly felt really stupid.

She ran over to open the bag and was shocked to find the Spider suit inside, the one she gave up! She didn’t understand why he was giving it back when she didn’t work for him anymore. Did he not think she was serious? Did he...still want to train her? After everything they went through? Everything they said to each other?

She clutched it dearly in her hands, but she looked up at the ceiling to think this through. Deep down, she still admired Tony Stark as a hero, but she didn’t want her heart broken again like last time. Just because he gave her the suit didn’t mean he was going to talk to her more. He even sent his gofer to her school today instead of coming in person. What if she went back to him and the whole cycle started over again? She wasn’t ready for that, not now at least. She still needed time.

She folded the suit neatly and put it in her drawer, but when she grabbed the mask, she realized there was one thing she still wanted back. She put the mask on, and watched the screens and interfaces power up.

  
“Hello? Karen? Are you there?” She asked hopefully.

_“Hello, Petra.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, so that technically marks the end of SMH, which leaves me with a choice to make. I can either time skip to Infinity War now or wait until we get closer to A4 (as I'm doing with my fem!Cap fic). Also, as of now, the Far From Home trailer hasn't dropped yet, so I don't know if it's going to take place before or after Infinity War. I would like to know which one it is, because I want to know if the MCU will fill in the blanks of what happened to Spider-Man in the two years between SMH and IW. If it looks like it's going to be after IW and those two years will not be addressed, then I'm probably going to fill in some adventures for Petra myself (most likely involving her many many girlfriends. Maybe even Black Cat.) 
> 
> If it looks like it's going to be before IW, I will probably still add an adventure or two, but I'll be careful so I don't make any big changes that'll mess up the chapters for that movie. Also, ideally I would like to place the filler adventures BEFORE the IW chapters. So, I'm asking you, my faithful readers, which path you'd prefer right now.


	23. Choice of Suits

“What do you mean she’s not coming?” Tony asked in a low, agitated voice as he paced around the entrance to the compound, “Did you tell her it was important?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Tony. She said she doesn’t want to see you.” Happy said as he picked web strings off of his lip.

“Did you tell her I’m not mad?”

“Yes! I tried to talk to her about it and she webbed me in the face!” Happy complained.

Tony leaned his head back, exasperated, “Well you sound fine now, can you find her and try to talk to her again?”

“She took off. I’m sorry.”

“You remember where her apartment is right?” Tony asked. Suddenly, he felt the a hand touch his shoulder and he looked behind and saw Pepper looking at him, shaking her head.

“On second thought...just leave it. Come on back, Happy.” He sighed and hung up, turning around to face Pepper.

“Did I screw this up, Pepper?” He asked her as he took off his sunglasses and rubbed them.

“You mean, do I think you called the press conference too early? Yes. When you told me that last time you saw her she threw her suit back at you, it wasn’t very promising she was going to show up.” Pepper said, bluntly.

Tony looked up the staircase towards the empty dorms that once housed the Avengers. Wanda, Steve, Sam and Clint’s rooms were left as they were, waiting for them to come back someday. Rhodey still occupied his room as well as Vision, but those two weren’t on the best terms considering Vision was the reason Rhodey would never walk the same way again.

“I’m not saying you pushed her away forever.” Pepper said more comfortingly, “She’s just a kid. She needs time to think about these things.”

“Would it be...too much...if I told her everything?” Tony asked. He knew that Petra had been begging for the truth even before they left Germany, but back then, he considered that information too personal and only for those who needed to know. But then...he watched the footage she deleted. He got the video feed of the Vulture he was looking for as well as a look inside Damage Control’s vault...but then he got something else he wasn’t expecting.

He knew he shouldn’t, but he replayed her story ten or fifteen times, to make sure he was hearing what he thought he was hearing. He was absolutely floored, clutching his heart as it palpitated. He struggled to breath as listened to Petra explain what that dirtbag did to her. What made things worse is she didn’t know that he knew, so as much as he wanted to run to her and make everything alright, he knew that would only make things worse. She would know he saw the forbidden footage, and her trust would be lost forever. The only way to fix this would be for her to open up to him about it on her own, and to do that, he would have to reveal the truth she sought about Germany, about Captain America, about everything.

“I think that kid can handle a lot more than you think.” Pepper told him.

“Oh, I know she can.” Tony said.

* * *

 

“No way...No way! Holy crap!” Ned exclaimed as he watched Petra’s home movie of her airport fight on his laptop in her room.

“I know right?! He grew to like 10 stories!” Petra still couldn’t believe it and she was there.

“Who is that?” Ned asked.

“I don’t know. We didn’t really introduce ourselves, but he can shrink, too. You saw how he sucker punched me in the chin after I took the shield.” Petra said.

“You should totally post this.” Ned said.

“No! Are you kidding? This is top secret stuff. No one is supposed to know I was in Germany. I mean, I’m not even registered with the Accords, technically.” Petra said.

“Are you gonna?” Ned asked.

“I mean...I don’t know. I’m not working for the government, really. I don’t think I need a license to do a few good deeds around the neighborhood.” Petra said as she tossed her webshooter between her hands.

“Well, what did Iron Man say?”

“We’re...not on speaking terms right now.” Petra explained with a hiss.

“What? But we stopped the Vulture from taking his plane! He can’t still be mad at you.” Ned said.

“I didn’t say it was him not speaking to me…” Petra bit her lip and adjusted her seat on her bed.

“You...you dissed Iron Man?” Ned asked in a loud whisper, watching for Aunt May in the slightly open door.

“He dissed me first! Or his personal assistant did.” Petra wrapped her arms around her knees.

“Wow, that’s hardcore. Are you like playing hard to get? What if like, that’s it? What if he never tries to contact you again?” Ned asked.

“Well at least I get to keep the suit.” She got up and opened the drawer to pull it out, “He gave it back to me.”

“Sweet! That’s actually really good news because I saw your Instagram comments and they really miss that suit.” Ned said.  
“I know but...I didn’t make this. Mr. Stark did. I kind of want to wear something I made myself, you know? Spider-Man should be a self-made man.” Petra said.

“So you’re just going to keep the sweats then?” Ned asked, “Or you could just make a new suit.”

Petra’s eyes widened and she dropped the suit back in the draw and shut it, “That’s a great idea! I’ll just reverse engineer that suit and use it to make a new one that’s totally mine!”

“Isn’t that kind of copying, though?” Ned said, “I mean it’s still a cool idea, either way.”

“Well, I’m not gonna keep everything. Like there was this ‘Instant Kill’ mode that kept trying to come up, and that was way overboard so that’s definitely out.” Petra pulled her notebook off of her desk and started listing things, “But I want to keep Karen definitely. She’s cool.”

“What about the trackers?” Ned asked.

“I could probably make some of those myself. They don’t have to be the fancy little spiders.” Petra wrote that down, “Oh, and the baby monitor protocol has got to go.”

“What about webbings?”

“Well, what Mr. Stark put in was a little overkill, so I think I’ll stick to classic web, web grenade, and splitter. Oh, and taser. Wait, no taser. That might be too dangerous.” Petra chewed her thumb, “They might have a pacemaker that I don’t know about.”

“Pacemaker? Are your criminals like 80?” Ned chuckled.

“Well Vulture was kind of old, so so far, yeah.” Petra said.

When it came down to the look, that’s when things got really heated.

“I’m just saying I should experiment with more colors. I think solid red and black would look cool.” Petra said.

“It’s too late to change the colors. People already associate with you with red and blue, and the webbed look is awesome.” Ned argued.

“Yeah, but can you imagine how long that’s gonna take to sew?” Petra said as she threw her head on her pillow.

“It’ll be worth it though! It sells the look.” Ned insisted.

“Fine, I’ll keep the webbing and the blue, but I do think the spider should be bigger.”  
“Which one? The front or the back?”

“The front one. Like the legs should reach my shoulders and the top of my legs.”

“And the eyes?”

“I like the eyes. The eyes stay.”

As they got into it, Aunt May could hear the rising excitement and pushed open the door a little more and peeked her head in, “Hey, what are you guys doing in here?”

Petra pushed her sketchpad with concept suits close to her chest, “Nothing...just nerd stuff.”

“Oh yeah?” Aunt May asked with a smile, “What kind of nerd stuff?”

“...Cosplay stuff. It’s embarrassing.” Petra blushed.

That seemed to work and sent Aunt May back to her own business. As soon as she was gone, Petra groaned loudly.

“Ugh, when do I get my privacy back?” She complained and dragged her hands across her face.

“...So about the pants?” Ned got back on topic.

“Right, I want a two piece. The problem with the tech suit is it takes time to get out of to go to the bathroom.” Petra continued.

By the end of the night, she and Ned had come up with about 5 different possible designs, and she couldn’t decide which one she liked best.

“I got it!” Petra said as she took pics with her phone of all the designs, “If it’s my followers I’m trying to please, then I should include them in on it. I’ll put it to a vote.”

“You’re gonna let your fans pick out your suit? That’s cool.” Ned supported the idea, “I’m gonna vote for No. 4, just so you know.”


	24. Set Yourself Up

In between the bells, Petra checked her phone constantly for updates to the poll for her new suit. She posted each suit individually and the one with the most likes by the end of the week would win. So far the sleek black-headed suit with a red torso and goggles was in the lead, with the stealthy black and night-vision green goggles trailed in second. What she definitely knew was that her fanbase loved the color black.

“Hey Petra.” A spunky little voice peeped from behind her, startling her. She pressed her phone to her chest, paranoid that whoever it was would catch the screen and realizes she was in charge of the Spider-Man Instagram and then draw the natural conclusion. She spun around and threw her back against the lockers, and saw it was Betty Brant, the prim and proper girl who did the morning announcements.

“Oops! Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Betty giggled.

“I wasn’t, I was just-” Petra didn’t know how else to explain it so she dropped it, “Hey, Betty.”

“So you’re the one who knows Spider-Man, right?” Betty asked with hopefulness in her eyes.

“Yeah...kind of...but we’re not super close. Why?” Petra asked.

“Oh, I was just hoping if you could ask him if he’d like to do an interview?” Betty asked, “I’m interning at the Daily Bugle and my boss really wants to know about Spider-Man. Like he’s crazy about it. He would love it if Spider-Man came down for an interview sometime.”

“Oh, Betty...I don’t know…” Petra rubbed her hair by her ear, “He’s a really private person. I don’t think he does interviews.”

The look of disappointment on Betty’s face was killing her. Petra couldn’t help but try to cheer her up by appeasing her in some way.

“But I’ll give it a shot and ask him.” Petra said.

That put the smile right back on Betty’s face, “Okay, cool! Thanks!”

“Yeah, no problem.” Petra smiled back, catching it’s contagiousness. As Betty walked off, Petra pressed her face against the locker and muffled a groan.

* * *

  
“You told her she could interview Spider-Man?” Ned asked her at lunch.

“I didn’t say that, exactly. I said I’d ask him for her.” Petra said with her forehead in her palm, hanging her face over her tray of square pizza.

“So you can still tell her he said no.” Ned said.

“Yeah, but then she’s gonna be all sad, and I can’t take that.” Petra explained, but it didn’t even sound convincing to herself.

“Really? What if she wanted to know his secret identity? Would you give it up just because she wanted it?” Ned asked.

“Of course not!” Petra said trying to talk herself into it, “But like an interview shouldn’t be that bad, right? Just sit down, answer a few questions, and it’s over like that.”

“Well are you gonna tell them the truth?” He asked.

“Depends on the question.” Petra said, “I mean like what questions do you think they’re gonna ask?”

“First thing, is Spider-Man actually a girl?” Ned said.

“Spider-Man is...whatever you want them to be?” Petra shrugged.

“Okay, not bad, so where does Spider-Man do during the day?” Ned continued.

“It’s not an interrogation, I don’t have to answer everything truthfully. I just have to make the answers fun and readable right?” Petra said.

“So you’re actually going to do this.” Ned said.

“I guess I am. Unless I shouldn’t. This could go bad, somehow, couldn’t it. But it doesn’t have to, right? I’m worrying over nothing. This’ll be good for Spider-Man, give ‘em a chance to dispel some rumors.” Petra said, biting into her cardboard-tasting pizza as she checked her Instagram, “Huh, green-eyes took the lead.”

“How’s the shiny webbing outline doing?” Ned asked.

“Not so good. It’s second to last.” Petra told him.

“Dang it! Well, there’s still time. It’ll catch up.” Ned said.

Once she got home, she continued the work for the base of the new suit. Once she isolated Karen, then she could place her on a comfortable layer of a breathable underlayer of fabric that could keep her warm on cold days, but not leave her sweating through her goggles on the hot days.  
However, isolating the wiring and coding for an advanced AI was a piece of cake compared to texting Betty. She took a deep breath before starting off with a simple,

_“Hey, talked to Spider-Man today.”_

Her heart raced as she saw the three dots appear almost immediately. Was Betty waiting for this all day?

_“Cool! What’d he say? :D”_

Even though it was just the emoji smile, Petra could still see the real one on her face which made her nervous.

_“He said he can meet with you, but only for a short time, and it has to be in private. Not at the Bugle.”_

_“Awesome!!! Is over dinner okay?”_

Dinner? Dinner?! Like a date? Petra buried her face into her bed and screamed. She gave herself a few moments to act like she was texting a third party who then needed time to respond.

_“Yeah, dinner’s fine. He can meet you at Joe’s Pizza on Saturday night. 5pm.”_

_“Sure thing! Thank you sooooo much!!!”_

_“np”_

Petra dropped her phone jumped around on her bed, squealing.

* * *

  
“Friday, show me...the sex offender registry in Queens, specifically the ones convicted of crimes against minors.” Tony said in his lab in the Avengers compound. The holographic map came up horrifyingly colorful, before narrowing down to the hundreds of pink dots scattered around the neighborhoods.

_“739 results.”_

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose with his shaking hand, “God, this is terrifying. She _lives_ near these people...Okay, none of them would happen to have the name Skip on their legal record, would they?”

_“None found, sir.”_ Friday reported.

“Okay, so I’m trying to find a guy and I don’t know his first name or his last name...” Tony said, trying to avoid replaying the video in his mind again. If he started, it wouldn’t stop. Then something occurred to him and he snapped his fingers, “He was 16 when she was 13, so should be 18-19 now. Narrow down the search to those born from 1997-1998.”

_“97 results.”_

“Jesus…” Tony rubbed his scalp as he paced around in a circle, “Alright, let’s start from the top then, and work our way down…”


	25. Distracting

When Saturday came, Petra realized she hadn’t decided what Spider suit to wear. She had already stripped the Stark suit for its valuable parts, and voting wouldn’t close on the new suit until midnight. She could wear her original suit, but she still wanted to look good for Betty. She could salvage the superficial layer of the Stark suit, but that would mean she’d be going without Karen, and now wearing his suit felt like surrendering to him when she was still mad at him. 

“Ah, it’s just one interview, just for a couple hours.” Petra said to herself, “And I should look professional...Okay, just one last time.” 

It was only a couple months ago that she was so excited to wear this suit, and she thought nothing could make her happier. She should have known with her luck that it was too good to be true. Everything wonderful in her life came with a heavy cost. 

She rolled up the suit and stuck it in her purse. 

“Bye, May. I’m going to Joe’s.” Petra said as she tried to hurry out the door. 

“Hold on, you’re going by yourself?” Aunt May asked. 

“Yeah.” Petra answered. 

“I’ll go with you, it’s gonna be dark soon.” Aunt May offered.

“No, no. You don’t have to do that.” Petra insisted. 

“You can’t go by yourself. It’s too dangerous.” Aunt May said sternly. 

“Well, you see, I’m meeting some people there.” Petra said. 

“Who?” 

“Some kids from school.” 

“Which kids?” 

“The ones who do the school news. You don’t know them.” 

“Well, tell me about them.” 

“Just Betty and Jason. Jason likes Betty, but Betty gets frustrated with him because he’s not very good at speaking. I think he just signed up to be close to her, but it’s not working for him. So now Jason’s trying to take her out for pizza, and Betty asked me to hover and sit near them to bail her out if he tries anything weird, but he can’t know I came there on purpose.” Petra explained, making up the second part after she said the truthful first part. 

“Ah, that’s clever. Have fun on your super secret mission, then.” May finally let her go. 

“Thanks! Love you, bye!” Petra said as she scuttled out the door. 

Petra blew a long stream of air as she walked down the block. She knew Aunt May was worried, but she didn’t expect to be interrogated every time she tried to leave the house. If it kept up like this, she would have to reinvent a whole Degrassi-style drama at her school to explain why Petra was staying out. Also, at least she wasn’t completely lying, she was going to see Betty. And if May somehow found out that Jason wasn’t there, she’d tell her Jason chickened out. 

Once she was a few blocks away from Joe’s, she climbed up the roof of the tallest building on the street and slipped on the top layer of the Stark suit. Petra made sure to come 20 minutes early so she could prepare one of Spider-Man’s sneaky entrances. She didn’t want to just walk in and join Betty, she had to make a good impression! What she could do is loom over the top of the restaurant and then just as Betty was about to walk in, Bam, drop down upside down right in front of her. 

“Hey, you must be Betty.” Petra lowered her voice and tried to sound like one of those chill dudes. Then, she switched to Betty’s voice, “How did you know?” 

“Petra told me to look for a cute blonde in a black headband.” Petra switched back to the cool voice.

Suddenly, Petra noticed something moving across the street. A shadowy figure that was was dangling from the fire escape and hanging onto the fourth floor window of the old bank. Were they stuck? She was about to leap towards them when she saw the person drop their feet on the ledge and stick the landing. Then, she saw a tiny red light trace the edge of the window. Then, the glass popped out, and the person carefully set it down inside. Looks like it was a break-in at the bank. Robbery, most likely. 

Petra looked at her phone and saw she had plenty of time. All she had to do was nab the perp and leave them hanging for the authorities. The robber had already jumped inside by the time she webbed to swing onto the building. She crawled onto the ceiling through the window, but as she tried to listen for the person shuffling around, she only heard faint steps as they moved to a different floor, probably heading to the bank vault for the cash. 

She rushed to the spiraling staircase and looked for the security cameras. She crawled up to one blinking is red light and discovered the lens had been sprayed with black paint. At least this way, the perp was covering her tracks as well as their own. Petra quietly webbed the highest ceiling and lowered herself towards the vault on the first floor. She quietly tiptoed around, but the perp wasn’t there either. She didn’t even hear their footsteps anymore. Did she scare them off? Or were they not here for the actual cash? 

She went back up the stairs and went up until she heard the click-clacking of a keyboard on the second floor. So the robber was probably trying to hack the computers to access some files or transfer funds online. Petra saw the bright light of the computer screen shining on the perp’s face in the black balaclava. As she crept up to them, she noticed that the figure was feminine and wearing a black leather catsuit. 

“Hey Miss,” Petra said as she webbed the woman’s back, “You know you can check your account on your phone these days.” 

She pulled her webbing to bring the woman closer towards her, but to her surprise, the robber flipped her feet up and over while she was in the air so that her boots collided into Petra’s face. 

“Ow!” Petra groaned and felt her head spin, “Geez! Black Widow is that you?” 

Even though she was disoriented, she felt the robber grab her webbing from behind her, but this time Petra learned her lesson. She released the webbing, expecting the robber to pull with too much force and fall, but she was graceful enough to keep her footing and spin out of the way of Petra’s next webshot. 

“Close, but not quite.” The voice confirmed she was feminine, and her tone was sultry to boot. 

Petra gave her webshooters a break and lunged for the mysterious woman before she could escape out the door. She latched onto her back like an animal, and the woman grabbed her and flipped her over her head, which is what Petra wanted. Petra landed on her feet and pulled the woman over her head, but with more force. The woman hit the floor on her back with a loud grunt. Petra webbed her wrists together and pulled on it like rope, dragging her towards the window. The woman got back on her feet as she skid and ran towards Petra, thrusting her bound fists in her direction. Petra blocked her strikes, but then the woman used the webbing between them by jumping back on a desk and launching herself towards the ceiling fan. The webbing slid over the rotor like a pulley, and the woman swung back to kick Petra out the closest window, shattering the glass. Before she fell, Petra saw the woman rip through the binding on her hands with cat-like claws on her gloves. 

Petra gasped as she went flying, but webbed herself to building and caught herself, landing her feet along the side of the building. Now that she lost sight of the mysteriously acrobatic woman, she really wished she hadn’t moved the heat vision radar out of her mask already. She seemed to be an expert, so she wouldn’t run out the usual exits, so Petra picked the next place a strong and flexible thief would try to escape. Petra crawled on all fours towards the rooftop, where she spotted the robber leaping to the next building. 

“Hey! Get back here!” Petra yelled as she chased after her, jumping roof after roof. So she wasn’t just strong and agile, she was fast, too. Was this woman an agent of some kind? Why would she be breaking into banks through windows at sunset? 

Once Petra had her in her sights, she thrust her arm forward to swing a long web like a fishing wire. The end stuck to the top of her balaclava, and pulled it off her head, revealing long, silvery hair that shined in the city lights. The woman stopped at edge of the next building, turning around to face the spider that chased after her, revealing her black lips in a lopsided smile and black eyeshadow adorning her marble white skin. As Petra came close to reaching her, the woman jumped backwards, falling into the alley. 

“Wait!” Petra shouted, but when she looked over the roof’s edge, the woman wasn’t on the alley pavement or laying in the garbage bins. She escaped without a trace. 

“Damn it!” Petra cursed at herself, before remembering she had to meet Betty at Joe’s and exclaimed again, “Damn it!” 

She looked at her phone for the time. Crap! She was 15 minutes late! And Betty was texting Petra if Spider-Man had contacted her about showing up. Petra quickly texted her that Spidey was on his way and ran back towards the restaurant.


	26. The Interview

Petra rubbed the grime and broken glass off her suit while she was on top of Joe’s. Just because she was late didn’t mean she still couldn’t make an entrance. She put her mask back on and hung upside down in front of the window, spotting Betty focused on her phone. She wanted to wait until she looked up and saw her, but nothing from out here could grab her attention. So Petra had to open the door and crawl across the ceiling. Literally everyone else noticed and started gasping and aweing, except for Betty. When she finally caught wind that something was happening, she looked up and saw Spider-Man was already sitting at her booth. 

“Hey.” Petra said with a quick nod of her head, spreading her legs in her seat and resting one arm on the back of her seat. 

“Aah!” Betty jolted with a chirp of surprise, setting her phone down at the table, “Ohmygod, you actually came!” 

“Yeah, sorry about the wait.” She said in her cool voice, “I got tangled up.” 

“Web puns, I like it!” Betty giggled, deep breathing and fanning herself, “I’m sorry, I’m just...so nervous.” 

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” Petra said with a wave of her hand. 

“Okay...Okay...I hope you don’t mind if I record this.” Betty said as she opened the voice recorder app on her phone and set it in between them. 

“Sure, “ Petra cleared her throat and lowered her voice another octave, “No problem.” 

“Okay, I had all my questions somewhere.” Betty muttered as she ruffled through her purse. 

“Relax. How about we talk about you first?” Petra suggested, “Petra told me your name was Betty and not much else. I mean...that she didn’t know what else I would want to know. She told me that you were cute though, and blonde. Her words. About you. Which I agree.” 

Petra stumbled on her words and worried about losing her cool, but Betty seemed to go along with it. 

“Right, right, oh my God, I forgot to introduce myself!” Betty held out her hand remembering what she practiced, “Betty Brant. I’m interning with the Daily Bugle. Thank you for agreeing to see me today.” 

“The pleasure’s all mine, Ms. Brant.” Petra went for the handshake, trying to make it strong but not aggressive, “I’m Spider-Man.”

“Oh, did you want to order something before we get started? I didn’t want to order something before you got here.” Betty said. 

“Yeah! I’d love that!” Petra said, trying to make that sound butch. They ordered a classic pepperoni pizza to share. But when it arrived, she realized she couldn’t eat it without pulling up the bottom of her mask. Crap. Her jawline was soft and bare. What if Betty noticed that? But her hands were tied now. It would be rude to just refuse. She lowered her chin to her neck as she lifted the mask to just above her lip, fearing her nose wasn’t mannish enough either. 

“So why did you choose the Bugle?” Petra asked, wiping the greasy cheese off her chin. 

“Oh, well I want to be a reporter, and my guidance counselor told me that they were looking for interns to work after school, so...here I am.” Betty said, finally starting relax. 

“What’s it like there?” Petra asked. 

“It’s pretty good so far. I mainly just shadow and maybe proofread some articles now and then, but it’s always busy. My boss is kind of stickler, but he’s just really old-fashioned.” Betty said, “Okay, ready to start?” 

“Yeah, sure.” Petra said calmly, even though she was burning inside. 

“Okay…” Betty pressed the record button on her phone, “So, I was able to contact you through a friend of mine who said she met you through an internship with Stark Industries. Are you an employee of Stark Industries?” 

“I’m not, actually.” Petra answered honestly, “I mean, I’ve met him and some of his staff, and we had a short business thing, but we’re not...I’m not...I’m more of a...freelance type hero.” 

“So, that leads to another big question, there have been a lot of rumors about you joining the Avengers. Is there any truth to that?” 

Petra bit her lips under her mask. Now this is one she had to skirt around. 

“I mean, that sounds fun, but...I don’t really see myself as the type who fights aliens. The stuff the Avengers gets into is pretty intense, so I’m trying to stay on the ground. There’s a lot of crime on the streets that needs to be stopped by someone with my abilities.” She said professionally. 

“And what are those abilities exactly?” Betty asked, “We’ve seen the web-swinging and the crawling up walls, but are there any other cool powers we’ve yet to see?” 

“Ha,” Petra chuckled, “If I told you that, it would give away the element of surprise.”   
“Ah, true…” Betty took notes as well while she was recording, “So if street crime is more your thing, do you think you’d ever work with the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen?” 

“I’d have to meet him first, but wouldn’t that be awesome? The guy who took down Wilson Fisk? Geez, that guy looks huge on TV, I can’t imagine how much of a tank he is in person.” Petra responded with genuine interest. 

“But you could have taken him down too, right?” Betty asked playfully. 

“I mean, if he picked a fight with me, I would give him all I’ve got.” Petra knocked on the table, “But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. He’s in prison where he needs to be.” 

“So most of your hero work has been in New York, but there was one incident where you were actually in Washington, D.C. So first of all, I would like to thank you on behalf of Midtown for rescuing our Academic Decathlon team. You don’t know how much it means to us.” Betty said thoughtfully. 

“You don’t have to thank me. I was just doing my job. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.” Petra said, her voice getting lower as she thought about how she rescued Liz. The look of relief and gratefulness as she pulled her up, and the piercing way she looked into the goggles of the suit. For while, Spider-Man was the hero who saved her life, and now he was the one who put her father in prison. 

“That was really lucky that you were in D.C at the same time!” Betty said, and Petra knew what she was implying for her next question. 

“Well, I was there as a favor to my friend, our... mutual contact. Her internship required her boss keeping a close eye on her, and so someone needed to go along with her and it was between me and this other guy she can’t stand, so I volunteered.” Petra tried to make it sound plausible. 

“That’s so nice, you two sound close.” Betty said, again hinting at something. 

“Oh, well, she’s very friendly, and really smart, too. I think she’s just so talented and wise beyond her years.” Petra’s eyes widened as she realized she wasn’t squashing the idea that Spider-Man was her boyfriend. If anything, she was making it worse. At best, it gave the idea that Spider-Man was a teen himself who liked a girl his age, which would let bad guys know she was young. At worst, total creeper. She had to fix this immediately. 

“She’s like a little sister to me, so I get protective of her. I’m protective of all my fellow New Yorkers.” She said, hoping that was a good save. Good thing the mask hid her nervous smile, “You know, I’d hate to cut this short, but I got to head out soon. I got some...spider business to attend to.” 

“Okay, okay, just one more question?” Betty asked eagerly. 

“Shoot.” Petra jerked her head. 

“Who’s your favorite Viner?” Betty asked, “I’m sorry, I know that seems stupid, but I just have to know.” 

“It’s Gavin. Love that kid.”


	27. Catch The Fiend

The next morning, Petra checked her Instagram while still under the covers to see the likes on the different suits and determine the winner. A whopping 2.1k likes put red and black in first place. That was a relief, because there was no actual webbing on it. It was red all the way up to her clavicle and biceps in the front, but only up to her lower back in the rear. The rest was black, including her fingertips, the bottom of the boots. The eyes however, kept their pointed shape but were shiny red reflective lenses. She kept the two spider logos, a black one on the red front, and a red one on the black back. She was incredibly thankful that her fans voted for a simple design, because now she could finish the new suit within the week.

After she posted which design was the winner, she dedicated the rest of the day to getting started on making the suit. She already had the base ready, where most of the tech went, but there was still technical things needed for the outer layer, like the built-in webshooters she was working on. For the red lenses, she needed to coat them in a polymer to strengthen them, so that they wouldn’t shatter in her eye if someone punched her in the face, or more realistically when.

Building the new suit sounded fun in theory, but in practice, it was hell. Seams ripping, sleeves that bunched at the armpit, and pants that rode up the crotch. After about 10 hours, she put it away to give herself a break. She needed time away from it before she tore it to shreds.

Monday came, and on the subway to school, she did her usual social media check. Spider-Man’s Instagram got hundreds of new followers every day, especially after the Washington incident. She was wary about reading the comments on her posts though. She loved to see community’s support, but she knew they could get nasty fast. Today, that finally happened, but it wasn’t the trolling she expected. Instead, it was concerned posts saying that she allegedly robbed a bank? What? She stopped bank robberies, why would she do one herself?

As she scrolled through the threads, she saw someone posted a link to their source. She tapped on it and it redirected to the Daily Bugle website, with the article headline reading _SPIDER-MAN SPOTTED AT CRIME SCENE_. The text itself said that he was a most likely an accomplice of the crime, if not the mastermind.

“What?” Petra exclaimed out loud. She just gave them an interview! Why would they post that?

She rushed to Betty’s locker as soon as she got to school. She could see Betty already knew about the article from the way she said “Hey, Petra” with extra sweetness to cover her guilt.

“Hey, Betty. I saw the article from the Daily Bugle. Did the interview not go well with Spider-Man?” Petra asked calmly and politely, even though her eyes were burning.

“No, it did. He was really nice, and I showed it to my boss, but um...he said that he was seen at that bank that got broken into...so he had to publish that...instead.” Betty tried to explain.

  
“But you know Spider-Man wouldn’t do that. He was at that bank to _stop_ the burglar, not help her! Or him, we don’t even know who the other guy was!” Petra asserted.

“I know. I don’t think he did it either. He doesn’t seem like the type.” Betty agreed with her to calm her down, but it wasn’t helping.

“Then tell your boss that! Tell him you know that Spider-Man is good!” Petra exclaimed, shocking Betty.

“I’m just an intern, Petra.” Betty said defensively, “Look, I know you two are close, but you haven’t met Mr. Jameson. He’d eat me alive if I tried to argue with him. I’m sorry. I had a really nice time with him, I really did. We just have to wait until my boss cools down, that’s all. Then, maybe he’ll publish my interview.”

Petra took a deep breath, “Okay...sorry I yelled at you. He’s just...really important...to me.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Betty said before she rushed to escape off to class.

Petra balled her fists and pressed them against her face, throwing her back against the lockers. Where did that even come from? She never went off like that to other girls. Now Betty probably hated her and thought she was some crazy chick.

But now it wasn’t only Petra’s reputation that was trashed, but Spider-Man’s. Sure, it was one just one article, but she knew the internet enough to know that one bad story could spread like wildfire. She had to save it as soon as possible. If she caught and turned in the real culprit, then she could show that Spider-Man wasn’t affiliated with her at all. She still remembered what she looked like. Tall, slim-fitting black catsuit, claws, shiny white hair like she was Dany from Game of Thrones. She also had piercing eyes and a mischievous smile. She fought really good, too, so she’d be harder to catch.

Michelle sat with her and Ned at lunch that day, so she couldn’t brainstorm strategies to catch the fiend, or not out loud at least. In her head, she played all kinds of scenarios of confronting the black cat lady. If she tried to pull that scissor head grab with her legs, Petra would have to counter her weight or catch her mid-swing and throw her into the wall. But first she’d have to find her. Black Cat lady seemed like a pro, so surely she’d strike again, and Spider-Man would be there to catch her in the act, wearing the new personalized Spider suit.

* * *

 

Down in the seedy parts of Queens, shots rang out inside of a closed down retail store. The shop had been closed for years, but squatters used it to sleep and dealers used it to deal. The bullets broke through the dusty windows, and a couple of people burst out the emergency exits and made a break for it. One of the guys was a bleach blond young man with ears pierced all along the sides. He zoomed down the street, pushing past people in his way. He kept a small package tucked into the inner pocket of his denim jacket. He couldn’t take the time to see if anyone was following him, so he charged forward and made a sharp turn in an alley and jumped the wired fence in the way.

He zig-zagged around the next several blocks until he found a darkened empty warehouse to hide in. At least, he thought it was empty. As the young man tucked himself between a couple of a boxes, he crouched in silence for a few minutes. Then, suddenly, he heard a shrill electronic noise, and the boxes surrounding him exploded.

He yelled in fear as the shreds of charred wood settled into dust around him, but his eyes widened in shock and confusion at the sight before him. Was he hallucinating or was that really Iron Man standing in front of him?

“Hello, Stephen Wescott.” Iron Man’s mechanical voice boomed out of the suit, “Or can I call you Skip? Do you still go by that name?”

“H-H-How do you know me?” Skip didn’t know whether to be excited or terrified, but deep down he knew this wasn’t going to be a fun meeting.

“I don’t.” He said venomously, “Empty your pockets.”

Skip did as he said without hesitation, dropping the plastic white package on the ground and putting his hands up.

“Mmm-mmm-mmm.” Iron Man shook his head, approaching him through the flames of the ignited debris, “Stealing is one thing. Drugs is another. But stealing drugs? Now that’s definitely breaking your parole.”

“What’s it to you?” Skip argued through shaking breaths as he backed away from him, “Don’t you only deal with aliens and shit?!”

“I deal with threats.” Iron Man said, raising an armed gauntlet to him, “And boy, are you a big one.”

“W-What are you talking about?! I’m not a threat to you, I’m nothing!” Skip cowered and stepped away from the flames.

“Oh you’re going to _be_ nothing, when I’m done with you.” He said as he got close to him and wrapped his fingers around his throat, “But you are a threat to a good friend of mine. Her name is Petra.”


	28. Rookie

Petra was able to find the local police radio frequencies online, so she didn’t have to go out and buy a police scanner from some shady dealer. Sometimes it really paid off to live in the 21st century. She listened to it on her phone with her earbuds in while she worked on her new suit for the rest of the week. She posted progress photos on the Instagram while also declaring her innocence and that she was going to catch the one who got away, and to keep their eyes peeled for the Black Cat and report her to the police as soon as possible.

While she sat in class, she wondered if the Black Cat was going to strike again during the day. Then again, with her get-up, she looked like the type to work at night, and alone. Also, she thought more about why she didn’t hit the vault. Was it even money she was after? Maybe she was after files. Would she even go after other banks? Maybe she had already missed her chance.

Finally, by Saturday night, the suit was complete. She was so relieved, she wanted to cry. She checked herself out in the mirror and took a lot of pictures, sending them to Ned first. He was also excited it came out well. Now, it was time to take it for a test run.

“Bye May, I’m going to the movies.” Petra said as she tried to walk out the door.

“Wait a minute, who are you going with?” May asked.

“No one, I’m just going to see one by myself.” Petra answered.

“What are you going to see?”

_“Girl On The Train.”_

“Didn’t you already see that one?”

“Yeah, and I want to see it again. It was cool.” Petra said.

“Okay…text me as soon as the movie’s over so I can pick you up, okay?” May said.

“Okay, I will, bye.” Petra finally slipped out. She was already starting to get sick of this. Surely Aunt May would have to let up sometime. She was supposed to get more freedom as she got older, not less. Also, now she had just given herself a time limit to being out. She checked the movie times on her phone to see when the next showing started. It was about 30 minutes away, and if the movie was two hours long with previews, then that gave her two and half hours to go on patrol.

She changed into her new suit and set off webbing across the city. The mask lit up under its new settings.

_“Good evening, Petra. It’s been a while.”_

“Hey, Karen, missed you.” Petra chirped, “How do you like your new home?”

_“That’s weird, I can’t access most of my functions.”_

“Yeah, about that. I decided to cut down to the bare basics so that I don’t overwork you.” Petra explained.

_“You could never overwork me, Petra.”_

“I know, but still, I want to see how much I can do on my own, you know?” Petra said, “But I still want you around. I like talking to you.”

_“I like talking to you, too, Petra. So where are we going tonight?”_

“We are looking for a platinum blonde woman in a black catsuit who likes to break into banks.” Petra explained as she swung to a different bank of the same company several blocks away, since she doubted the Black Cat would strike the same place twice. She sat on edge of the rooftop, peering over the windows.

About thirty minutes passed, and nothing. Maybe this was a dumb idea. After all, she was only here on a hunch. Karen tuned into the police radios and didn’t report anything either.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing here, Karen. Maybe we should call it a night?” Petra moaned.

“Yeah Karen, maybe we should.” A sultry voice came up from behind her. That was her!

Petra quickly turned and thwipped at the shadowy figure. The Black Cat dodged with a quick lean to the side. Petra shot more webs at her, but she dodged each one as she came closer to her. Next thing she knew, she got a swift kick backwards and she was floored, with just her head peeking out over the edge. The Black Cat’s heel was pressed over her solar plexus, sucking her breath away.

“H-Ha…” Petra tried to make words come out, but the air was draining from her lungs.

“Heard you were looking for me.” The Black Cat said with a smile. No balaclava tonight, just the suit, the black eyeshadow, the flowing white locks. She took her heel off of her torso, which allowed Petra to breathe again.

“Man, you really are a rookie, aren’t you?” Black Cat stepped back, “Have to say I’m a little disappointed.”

“Y-You…” Petra heaved to get her breath back and coughed.

“Go on, take your time.” Black Cat taunted her.

“You’re really skilled for a bank robber.” Petra said, crawling back up on her feet, “Have you tried making an honest living? I don’t know, maybe as a ninja or something?”

“Why are you here?” Black Cat asked.

“Look, I don’t know what you tried to do at the bank last week, but whatever it was probably wasn’t legal, and now the Daily Bugle’s got people thinking that I was involved, so I got to take you in and clear my name.” Petra explained.

“If you didn’t want to be involved, you shouldn’t have gotten involved.” Black Cat said.

“Can you at least tell me what you were doing there?” Petra asked.

“Why should I tell you?” Black Cat asked back.

“Because maybe if it’s a good enough reason, I’ll let you go and I won’t bother you about it again.” Petra walked closer to her, getting a good look at her in better lighting.

“I just kicked your ass in zero seconds flat. You’ve got nothing on me. I came here because I thought you might amuse me, but now you’re just boring me.” Black Cat started to walk away, “Buh-bye, rookie.”

“Okay, fine, bye...Felicia Hardy.” Petra said, reading the name off of Karen’s facial recognition software, “If you don’t want to cooperate, then I’ll just give your name to CrimeStoppers, see if they’ll give me fifty bucks. What’s one more breaking and entering to your record anyway?”

Black Cat snapped right back around.

“Oh that’s dirty.” She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue in her cheek, crossing her arms, “You’re lucky I like dirty. Fine, I’ll bite. One chat.”

Black Cat cocked her head as she ran towards next roof over and leaped over the gap with ease, “C’mon. Let’s talk somewhere private.”

“O-Okay!” Petra was surprised that actually worked and followed after her, “But it’s gotta be quick! I have to be...somewhere in an hour!”


	29. Rich Friends

As Spider-Man, Petra followed the Black Cat to the third floor of a building where windows that had been shattered with bullets were being covered up with cardboard.

“This is really your apartment right? We’re not just breaking into someone else’s?” She asked.

“Why would I _pretend_ to live in this shithole?” Black Cat said as she opened her window from the outside.

“Well, if if it’s yours, then why don’t we just go in the building and use the stairs?”

“Because I don’t walk want to walk past my sleazy neighbors.”

“Fair enough.”

They slipped in through the window right into Black Cat’s studio apartment. As soon as her feet touched the floor, she kicked off her heels and went to the kitchen, pulling some ice cubes out of the freezer and dropping them in some whiskey glasses.

“Can I get you something to drink?” She asked.

“I’ll just have some water, thanks.” Petra answered politely. Black Cat shot her a funny look, so she explained, “I...shouldn’t drink and swing.”

“Fine...water it is.” Black Cat poured her a drink from the sink faucet.

In Petra’s head, she was still the Black Cat because she was still wearing the outfit. She looked around the apartment which had cute clothes scattered around the second or third-hand furniture. She moved a couple of shiny cocktail dresses into a pile to give herself room to sit on the couch.

“This is a nice place you got here.” Petra said.

“Thanks, I do what I can.” Black Cat said as she brought their drinks and set them down on the magazines she kept on the coffee table. She took a seat on her reclining armchair and tucked the foam padding back in where the seam was coming undone.

“So…” Petra took a sip from her water and awkwardly tapped on the glass, “About the bank…”

“Okay, straight to the point then.” Black Cat leaned on her palm and gave strained smile with her black lips.

“Well, I can’t stay very long.” Petra reminded her.

“You got plans after this?” Black Cat asked.

“Yeah...I got...meetings and stuff.” Petra mumbled, biting her lip at the end of her thought. She was getting better at this with Aunt May, but with this woman, it was hard to spin even a small lie. Her eyes were just piercing through her with a knowing look. It was then that she remembered she didn’t have to explain herself, it was Black Cat who needed to explain herself. If she hadn’t taken it out, she’d give Interrogation mode another chance.

“So about the bank...I noticed you didn’t go for the vault. You went straight for the computer on the other floor. So I’m guessing it wasn’t money you were after.” Petra said.

“Oooh, are you trying to play Sherlock Holmes?” Black Cat asked, “That’s adorable. Okay, I’ll play. There was money involved, but I wasn’t gonna run out of there with money bags in each hand.”

“Okay...so something less liquid…” Petra pondered and guessed, “Stocks and bonds?”

Black Cat remained unfazed.

“Insurance policy?”

Still nothing. So Petra looked around. Maybe there was a clue in this room. The only thing of notice was the stack of textbooks piled around. Finally, she put it all together from the big picture. She appeared to be in her early 20’s. Everything, save for the nice clothes, looked like she got it at thrift stores for cheap. There was also an abundance of alcohol. Felicia was most likely a college student. Also, that night, she went to a specific computer probably because it belonged to a specific teller who worked there. Which meant he probably represented her for the #1 reason college students needed money.

“Tuition loans.” Petra said, which made the young woman’s eyebrows perk up, “So you needed money for college, but why steal it?”

“I wasn’t stealing it.” Black Cat sat up, “I had my loan. It just wasn’t being sent to the school.”

“Did you check with the registrar?” Petra asked.

“Yeah.” Black Cat rolled her eyes, “Of course I did. Filled out all the paperwork and everything. Of course, this year I got less financial aid from the damn school because when you dig around to scrape up the money for the half they don’t pay for, they figure, hey, you have more money than you initially let on, so we don’t have to give you as much this year. And what does that mean for you? You gotta go to the bank, and ask the bank for more on your loan. And you gotta ask for more than you need because the bank is going to take a percentage of it back for fees anyway. So I go to my bank, and ask for my usual guy because he knew my dad, so we’d be able to work this out just fine.”

Black Cat took a swig of her drink before continuing, “But I find out that this guy left. Finally retired, so they gave my case to someone else. I meet the new guy, total cretin. I explain the situation, give him the paperwork, explain the amount I need and why. The man laughs in my face.”

“So...you didn’t get the new loan?” Petra followed.

“He told me that with the school I was going to, and the major I was choosing…” Black Cat took another big gulp of her drink, “That I’d never be able to get a job anyway, let alone pay them back.”

“That sucks! You should have asked for a new guy!” Petra replied.

“Tried to.” Black Cat continued, “It’s an old bank, run by old people. They told me this was the best guy they had, and so they believe him on everything. So once he said I’m a dud, everyone else in that building follows his example.”

“So what about trying a different bank?” Petra suggested.

“It’s not that simple, kid.” She said, “So, I make one last plea with him, telling him I’ve come this far, and I can’t give up on school now. He tells me that he’ll send the money under two conditions. One: I accept the crazy high interest rate with it. Two:...I get on my knees.”

“And beg?”

“...”

“...Oh.” Petra understood clearly, “So that night you broke in…”

“The old fuck is so senile, he keeps his username and password on a sticky note in his drawer.” She explains, “All I needed to do was log in, find my file, and approve the loan myself.”

“That’s…” Petra wanted to sympathize, but this was still in a greyer territory, “...still illegal though.”

“So is what he wanted to do.” Black Cat shook her head, “But no one at the place was gonna take my side. Look kid...If you decide to go to college, make sure you have rich friends.”

Petra’s phone beeped with the alarm she set. It was time for her to head to the movie theatre for Aunt May to pick her up.  
“Sorry, I gotta go.” Petra said quickly as she jumped up and headed towards the window, “I’m sorry about what happened to you, and thanks for telling me! I’ll think about whether I want to turn you in or not.”

“You sleep on that. They still think you’re my partner-in-crime, after all. If you squeal, I’ll squeal.” Black Cat said and winked at her, “And by the way, I like the new suit, even though I voted for #4.”


	30. Moral Choices

Petra had to swing back to the theatre and sneak in from the side exit so she could change back to her normal clothes in the bathroom and then exit from the front where she saw Aunt May’s car waiting for her.

“Why are you all sweaty?” Aunt May asked as Petra slide into the back seat.

“Ugh, the air conditioner in my theatre wasn’t working. It was crazy.” Petra groaned.

“So how was the movie this time? Notice anything new?” She asked.

“I mean the killer was the same. But like when you rewatch it you see all the hints in the beginning and it’s like ‘Whaaaaa?’” Petra said.

Once she got home, she plopped herself on her bed and looked at the ceiling, wondering what to do about Black Cat. Should she let her off the hook? Just this once? But with that whole getup and her skills and her previous record, this wasn’t her first rodeo. She could have lied about the whole thing to weasel her way out of getting tattled on. For all Petra knew, she was actually wiring money to offshore accounts for who knows what.

If she turned Felicia in, she might get prison time for what she did, and prison might turn her into something worse than a struggling college student turned cat burglar. And then Spider-Man would have a dangerous enemy who had sick martial arts skills and a personal vendetta. That may have sounded cool before, but she knew better now. Those superhero fights looked crazy and cool on TV, and felt that way in real life as they were happening, but afterwards...she could really see how people got hurt. She didn’t want to fight Felicia, she wanted to help her.

Then, Petra had an idea. If she could get Felicia the money, then she wouldn’t have to steal from the bank. If she paid the money back to the bank immediately, they might not even care how the loan was approved in the first place. But of course, Petra didn’t have any money of her own. However, she did remember what Felicia said about having rich friends.

It didn’t seem right to consider calling Mr. Stark over a money issue, especially when she was still kind of mad at him, but two weeks gave her time to cool off and at least this wasn’t for her own selfish purpose. It was for someone else. It seemed like most people who turned to crime did so because they needed money. The Vulture went crazy overboard with it, but he probably really did just start out as a normal guy who wanted to provide for his family. Helping Felicia now could keep her from going off the deep end later.

Her phone alarm rang to let her know it was time to work on her English homework, so that phone call to Mr. Stark would have to wait until tomorrow. She had a paper due on Monday, and she still hadn’t replaced her laptop yet. Her plan was to make an outline and take notes tonight on paper and then type and print it out at the library tomorrow. The unit was Greek Mythology, and the assignment was to pick a mythological figure and discuss the lessons of their story, and if those lessons hold up today. For shits and giggles, Petra picked the story of Arachne, the mortal weaver who became the first spider.

The teacher didn’t want a whole retelling of the myth, so she whittled it down to the bare bones. Arachne was a Lydian maiden whose claim to fame was her incredible talent for weaving. Her tapestries were more illustrious and colorful than any other mortal’s, key word being mortal. Arachne fell for the classic tragic flaw of hubris and boasted that her weaving skills were better than Athena’s herself. Athena didn’t like that and appeared to Arachne to challenge her to a weaving contest.

Athena weaved a glorious tapestry of the pantheon in their glory and Arachne weaved one of the gods using and abusing many mortals, which they did a lot in mythology. The thing was, Arachne’s work was _technically_ better than Athena’s, which objectively meant she should have won the contest. But Athena was so infuriated with Arachne calling out the gods that she destroyed the tapestry and physically struck Arachne in the head. This didn’t kill her, but Arachne was so terrified and humiliated that she hung herself. Athena decided that maybe that was too harsh, so she saved Arachne before she died by transforming her into a spider. So Arachne survived, but was still punished for insulting the gods.

Petra could take the easy route and focus on the hubris aspect for her paper, but that didn’t sit right with her. If Athena wanted to punish Arachne for her hubris alone, she could have come down and punished her outright. Why make a contest out of it? And if the lesson was that Arachne shouldn’t have challenged Athena in the first place, why does the myth say that her tapestry was better? It would have been easier if the myth said that Athena’s tapestry was better, therefore proving Arachne wrong, and her punishment would be more well-deserved. Also, there was the part where Arachne brought up the stuff that the gods like Zeus and Poseidon were known to wrongfully do to innocent people. If anything the true message was to never speak ill of those in power, even if you’re right. And that lesson didn’t hold up at all anymore.

After writing out her notes and points for her paper, Petra called it a night and slipped under her covers. Her mind was so full of dilemmas and school responsibilities that a dreamless sleep was impossible.

* * *

  
_Arachne woke up every morning to tend to her father’s sheep. The boring work came from feeding and herding them, but the fun work came from shearing them. Then, she could gather her materials to work on her favorite craft. She collected assortments of dyes to richly color the fabric, and she even tried blending different kinds of fibers to experiment with the fabric. She was so precise with the loom that she could pack the threads close enough to make the tapestries smooth, flat, and almost life-like._

_One day, her creativity and imagination paid off. She had created a tapestry that was as strong as leather but could stretch out and return to form. The tapestry was a beautiful blend of blue and red, and she was very proud of it._

_Her father praised her, telling her “Goodness, Arachne. Athena has truly blessed you with a gift.”_

_“My talents were not a gift, Father.” Arachne boasted, “I developed them on my own. I was the one who worked hard every day, and so I’m the only one who deserves the credit.”_

_“Be wary, Arachne.” Her father warned, “The Gods have given us everything we have, and it would be unwise to deny them.”_

_“I would never deny Athena.” Arachne said, “I love the Gods as you do, but if Athena were to see my work, she would see how much it surpasses her own. She would even invite me to join her on Mount Olympus and bestow the title of Goddess of Weaving to me.”_

_Arachne’s words did not fall on empty ears. As she displayed her tapestries for all to see, an old and haggardly man in an old cloak approached her prized work and felt its elasticity with his own fingers._

_“That tensile strength is off the charts.” He said, “Who made the fabric?”_

_“I did.” Arachne said proudly, “I made everything you see from scratch.”_

_“If it weren’t for a few flaws, I would say this would almost rival the work of Athena herself.” The old man said._

_“Almost?” Arachne took insult to that, “What flaws do speak of, old man?”_

_“Well, the colors are impressive, and the design would be nice for a luxury throw rug, but it doesn’t spark a fiery passion like fine art. It doesn’t illuminate the soul. Fine strands of metal woven in would make the tapestry shine, and also be as protective as armor.” He said._

_“And who do you know that would weave metal like thread?” She asked the old man._

_“I would.”_

_The old man threw off his cloak and revealed his glistening armor covering his muscular form. His beard was nicely cut around his jaw and encircled his upper lip. He placed a helmet of red and gold on his head._

_“I’m Hephaestus.” He revealed, “God of Fire, Metal, and Masonry, and I’ve heard much about you, child.”_

_Arachne fell to her knees, “Great Hephaestus, I am truly honored, but why have you appeared to me?”_

_“The winds have told me you’ve made quite a name for yourself, young Arachne.” He explained, “They have brought me your own voice saying that your weaving surpasses Athena, and that you belong among the Gods, taking her place as the Goddess of Weaving.”_

_“I did say that.” She said, without a sense of shame, “But why hasn’t Athena herself come to challenge me for my words?”_

_“Athena has other duties to attend to.” Hephaestus said, choking back the secrets between them, “I have come to defend her in her place, for she is dear to me.”_

_“Very well.” Arachne rose to her feet, “If I demonstrate my ability with the materials you have spoken of, and the product of my labor surpasses that of Athena, will you grant me my wish, Great Hephaestus?”_

_“That is not up to me.” Hephaestus said, “But if your actions prove your words true, then that truth will be acknowledged by the Gods, which should be enough for any mortal. If you fail, however, you will be punished for your boastful lies.”_

_Arachne took a deep breath and said, “I accept the challenge.”_

_Hephaestus provided her with the threads of fine metals, silver, gold and bronze, and she got to work on her latest masterpiece. Inspired by Hephaestus, she made images of weapons of war, and the Gods facing off each other in great demonstrations of their power. She weaved scenes of the Trojan war, inspired by the clash of Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera for the Apple of Discord. She weaved the trials the Gods themselves had to endure to secure their power on Mount Olympus._

_For many weeks, she threaded and weaved until her fingers bled. Finally, the tapestry was complete, and she summoned Hephaestus at his temple, with her work as her offering, still fresh on the loom. When Hephaestus appeared before her, she bowed her head and stood back as he looked upon her work. At first, he was amazed with her technical skill, and impressed with her integration of his fibers into her work. Then, he noticed the actual content of the tapestry itself. The war too distant for her to feel, but was very real to him. He saw her life-like depictions of Hera, the mother who abandoned him, of Aphrodite, the wife who deceived him, and Athena, the love he pined for but would never reciprocate._

_These scenes of strife and depictions of the Goddesses who had rejected him stirred his anger. Arachne raised her head to see his furious eyes filled with tears as he threw his arms out to make dozens of sharp swords appear behind him, aiming for the tapestry._

_Her eyes widened in horror as she realized his intent to destroy her masterpiece. She leaped up to her feet and dashed in front of her tapestry._

_“No!” She cried out as she threw her breast into the tapestry, shielding her work from the swords flying towards it._

_Hephaestus could not stop the swords in time. They pierced through the fabric, the loom, and the girl’s back. When Hephaestus looked at what he had done, he saw the her body collapsed on top of her tapestry, staining it with her blood. Two swords were embedded in her shoulders and two more in her lower back._

_“No...no.” Hephaestus came to the child’s side and picked her up delicately, “Foolish girl, I did not mean for you to die.”_

_The girl did not answer. Her eyes and lips were still._

_“Wake up, child, for I have good news.” He said as he picked her up and hoisted her in the air, “Your work was truly greater than Athena’s and moved a God to tears, and for that I will reward you.”_

_As he lifted her in the air, the swords in her back lengthened and became one with her skin, bending at joints to become metal appendages. More metal engulfed and coated her skin up to her neck. The color returned to her face and her eyes opened as she drew a new breath. She looked down at her new form and gasped._

_From this day onward, she was forever a spider of iron._


End file.
